Brothers Always Stick Together
by Silena the Hedgehog
Summary: Brothers are forever...right? When Mighty finally finds someone from his past, will he forget what's most important? Meanwhile, Espio is framed! The ninja is in a rush to find out who framed him and why.
1. Forever

Mighty stood at the entrance to his cave, overlooking Angel Island and all its glory. The sun was just beginning to set in the distance, casting an orange glow on the lush landscape. His blue eyes sparkled with a kind of peaceful calm. A small yellow squirrel stood next to him.

"It's such a beautiful sight Ray. It's wonderful to know that no matter how bad the day is, you can still see the majestic sun rise and set every day."

Ray smiled slightly at that.

"U-U-U-U-Unless we're caught in some sort of t-t-t-time loop or something weird like that."

"Well, yes, but…darn it Ray, the moment is gone."

He turned back and entered his cave/house. It wasn't exquisitely furnished, but it was home. Two small beds and dressers lined the walls and a small weight bench lay in a corner. Pictures plastered the walls; of him and Ray, and of the Chaotix. Mighty sat on the end of the bed and yawned. Ray sat next to him.

"Thanks for the s-s-s-s-sunset Mighty."

He pulled off his blue jacket and curled next to Mighty, leaning his head on his shoulder. Mighty wrapped an arm around him.

"Someone's tired. Long day?" Ray nodded, and closed his eyes.

"Maybe y-y-y-you could read m-m-me a story."

Mighty glanced over at their impossibly small bookshelf. Three books lay in tattered covers upon a small rickety stand.

"Which one?"

He asked his younger friend, picking the books up. Ray pointed to a small green book, the most worn down book of all. Mighty flipped it open and read the Book Title.

"The Adventures of Flash the Hedgehog; a story about adventure, mystery, suspense, and more. Good choice Ray."

Ray laughed a little.

"T-T-T-That's nothing compared to our adventures. The C-C-C-Chaotix always gets into interesting p-p-p-problems."

Mighty grinned.

"Now that's the under-statement of the century. We get into so many problems; we can't get out of them all. Now let's start this book before you fall asleep on me."

He began to read, keeping one eye on the book and one eye on Ray. It wasn't before long that Ray was fast asleep. Mighty closed the book and placed it gently on the rack. He lifted Ray up and carried him to the opposite bed. Tucking him in, he smiled at the dreaming squirrel.

"Goodnight Ray. I will never ever leave you. I hope you know that. Sleep tight. See you in the morning."

He climbed into his own bed, and took off his shoes and gloves. Taking one last look at Ray, he blew out a candle that was the only source of light and went to sleep. Ray opened one eye and glanced at Mighty, who was slightly snoring.

"I know Mighty. I'll never leave you either. Good night." Then he curled up and went to sleep.

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><p>Far off, on another part of Angel Island, a purple chameleon stood outside a door. Anyone walking past the area wouldn't see the chameleon or the door. They would see a giant rock and think nothing of it. Yet this door led into one of the most well hidden places in Mobius. The entrance into one of the four clans in Dragon Kingdom; the Shinobi. A clan known and honored for their secrecy, they treasured information and skills above all else.<p>

"Espio! Your shift is done."

Espio looked back at the reptile who spoke. Another purple chameleon, a female, also the leader of the clan, was smiling at him.

"You've been on watch for six hours now. It's time to take a break."

Espio shook his head. "I'm sorry moth-master, I mean master. The night is still young, and I do not feel tired enough to come inside."

She rolled her eyes at him, and closed the door behind her.

"We're alone Espio. You can drop the formalities. Call me Espia." "I'm sorry Espia. Old habits die hard, I guess. I was just thinking about a couple people."

He looked down at the ground below, and watched as a small beetle crawled by.

"Are you still upset about Valdez and Liza, Espio? They died bravely, and will never be forgotten."

Espia told him, tilting his head up.

"They were Robotizized. That's not bravery, Mother. They died trying to kill me."

She shook her head and smiled. "They died the second Robotnik turned on that foul machine. Those robots weren't really them as you knew them Espy. They were warped to believe what Robotnik wanted them to believe."

Espio tried hard not to cry, he knew that wouldn't be very ninja-like of him. Instead, he stared at the stars, wondering if Valdez and Liza could see him now. _Would they appreciate me? Would they be happy that I lived and they didn't?_ He thought. A shooting star shot by, leaving a fiery trail behind it.

All of the sudden, a yellow chameleon opened the door.

"My Bride."

He began.

"The clan is waiting for you to start dinner."

He closed the door and walked away. Espio looked at her.

"We should go. You wouldn't want the clan to go hungry."

Espia looked at him. He was hiding his feelings very well.

"Try to focus on the Present, and let the Past fade slowly from your mind. You will never forget, only push aside such thoughts until a more appropriate moment."

He nodded and opened the door for her.

"Thank you. Let us hurry Master. They are waiting."

Espia smiled at the sudden transformation her son took. He went from talking to her like family, to being polite and formal in everything he did. She wondered how long he could keep his emotions in check. She knew that one day; they'd get the best of him. Someday soon.

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><p><strong>End of First Chapter. Review Please! I would love the encouragement!<strong>


	2. Today's going to be interesting

**Okay, before I get too far into this, (all characters and places belong to Archie Comics and/or SEGA. I do not own anything except the plotline.) Thanks to all the people who reviewed and read my 1st chapter. I was overjoyed to see that everyone who read my story loved it. :D**

**So Anyway….**

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><p>"Ray, wake up."<p>

Mighty said, pulling the covers back. Ray mumbled something incoherent under his breath and rolled over. Mighty smiled and nudged the squirrel.

"Come on Ray. There's a Chaotix meeting today and you know Knuckles hates it when we're late."

Ray sat up sleepily and rubbed his eyes.

"W-W-W-Why does Knuckles need a m-m-meeting? The Dark Legion aren't attacking, are t-t-they?"

Mighty shrugged and pulled out a foldable table. He struggled with it a bit as he tried to pull it apart. The table snapped back and pinched his nose.

"Ow ow ow ow! My Dose hurts!"

He swatted the table away and grabbed his nose in pain. Ray started laughing hysterically.

"What's so funny? It binched my nose."

Mighty said, finally pulling the table apart and putting plates on it for breakfast. Ray laughed even harder and rolled right off the bed.

"The s-s-s-strongest person in Mobius, even stronger than V-V-V-Vector or Knuckles, and he can't pull a t-t-table apart."

Mighty rolled his eyes and put a pile of pancakes on Ray's plate.

"Okay, okay, that is kind of funny. When you want to pull yourself off the floor, breakfast is ready."

Later, the Chaotix sat around the Master Emerald. The great gem sparkled and glittered in the sunlight. Knuckles stood tall and proud next to the great gem, his huge spiked hand resting on the top of it. Mighty, Ray, Vector, Espio, Charmy, Saffron, and Julie-Su sat on rocks around him. Mighty side-glanced at Ray, who still looked tired.

"Ok Chaotix, listen up. I know the Dark Legion seem to be MIA right now, and I know no other bad guy seems to be attacking us. These last few weeks have been peaceful. Too peaceful. Something is up, and we're not seeing it. Someone usually does something by now. Any ideas to why we suddenly are being left to ourselves?"

Vector opened his mouth to speak, but Julie-Su cut him off.

"Maybe they're busy. With the whole freedom fighter issues going on down there, and the fact that Lien-Da is a grandmaster now and working for Eggman, makes it plausible that the Dark Legion and Eggman are busy with Sonic right now."

She smiled at Vector who was giving her the death glare.

"Says the former Dark Legionaire. She might know where they all are and we could be ambushed soon."

Vector snarled at her. Julie-Su stood up.

"You calling me a traitor, suitcase face?"

Vector stood up too.

"I suppose I am, Bitch."

Espio stood up.

"Oh for the love of God will you both shut the hell up! We're all tired of you two arguing! Now excuse me Knuckles, I have more pressing matters to attend to."

He walked off, leaving everyone one shocked and amazed.

"Did he just…?"

Charmy said, then trailed off into silence.

"M-M-Mighty. Is he okay?"

Ray asked. Mighty shook his head in amazement.

"I don't know Ray."

Knuckles sat down.

"He's never yelled like that before. Ever. In fact, I haven't seen him recently. Has he been very busy lately?"

Mighty shrugged.

"I guess he's been busy with his Shinobi stuff. He hasn't been around this part of Angel Island for days."

Vector looked around at everyone, then got up.

"Great. Just great. Now look what you've done Julie-Su."

Julie-Su got an angry look on her face.

"What I'VE done? You started this whole thing. Oh. My. God. You are such an idiot."

Knuckles grabbed both of them.

"We do NOT have time for this. Break it up and let's go find Espio.

"Saffron sighed in the background.

"By now he's invisible and hiding or he's somewhere else. Let's wait until he gets back."

Slowly the Chaotix meeting broke up. Mighty picked Ray up and set him on his feet.

"Why don't we go down to New Mobotropilis for a bit. Otherwise, this day won't be very fun to remember."

Ray nodded happily and they wandered toward the edge of Angel Island.

Mighty looked back to where Espio had stalked off. He hoped his friend was okay. Espy tended to be kind of secretive about his clan life. Hopefully, he'll come back soon. He seemed pretty upset. Mighty pushed away those thoughts. He'd worry later, when he wasn't trying to cheer Ray up. He didn't want Ray to think he was upset. He grabbed Ray's hands and they glided down to the ground below Angel Island.

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><p>He stopped on the edge of Rainbow Valley, right where it happened. Espio could still see Valdez torturing him with the thought of robotizing Rainbow Valley. He could see Liza, struggling for her life in her final last moments. The look in her eyes as she was dragged away. Espio could never forget them. Liza was and is the only girl that Espio had ever liked. Secretly, of course. He couldn't just ask her. His mother was to choose his bride-to be as part of clan ritual. He knew His mother would have never chosen Liza. She was five ranks below him, and a horrid fighter. She was better at reading and writing, and art than anything else. She had told him once that she wanted to be a record-keeper, so that she may write everything she saw down to be forever kept and re-read years later.<p>

And then there was Valdez. Who had always been there for him, had trained him for years. One of his closest friends. Just like that, they were gone.

"_You know Espio, these training sessions Valdez puts you through are horrifying to watch. He can't think that you're that good."_

_Liza smiled and laid her head back. The meadow they were lying in was in full bloom, and bees flew through the air, looking for nectar._

_"I must be good. You should hear all the trainees complain about him. Apparently, he sets his standards pretty high." _

_Espio looked over at Liza. She seemed lost in thought. _

_"You okay?"_

_Liza nodded. _

_"I was just wondering…what it's like out there. I've only lived on Angel Island. And in Dragon Kingdom and Rainbow Valley. I've never seen the entire island. And I've only heard rumors about the Guardians and of the freedom fighters."_

_Espio smiled at her and climbed to his feet. Holding his hand out so Liza could stand._

_"I would love to take you there sometime. We could explore it together. Just me and you and…Valdez" _

_Espio said. Liza gave him a puzzled look._

_"We're taking Valdez?"_

_Espio shook his head. He picked up a rock and threw it at a tree. A blue Chameleon fell out and hit the ground. _

_"No. Valdez. As in, Valdez was spying on us." _

_Valdez got up and brushed himself off._

_"Nice job Esp. Thought you'd never find me."_

_Espio grinned at his friend._

_"Truthfully, I had a feeling you were there all along." _

_Liza rolled her eyes._

_"No you did not. Otherwise, you would have said something earlier." _

_Valdez pulled Espio's hand and dragged him toward the Shinobi cave. _

_"Your mother is curious to your whereabouts."_

_Espio sighed. "Of course she is." _

_He looked back at Liza. She winked at him and wandered off to find her mentor…_

Espio opened up his hands and let a few Cherry blossoms catch in the wind and blow away. Tears streaked his face. He looked up to the sky.

"Goodbye…Sayonara Valdez, Sayonara Liza. I'll miss you."

Little did he know, someone was watching Espio. Someone who watched him from one of the Cherry trees. Someone who dropped to the ground and with a small smile picked up one of the Cherry Blossoms that had fallen to the ground. They stared at it awhile, then let it fall, now looking in the direction that Espio had walked off in.

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><p><strong>Hope you enjoyed it. Any questions, comments, or concerns; feel free to send me a Private Message or Review. Sorry to leave you on a Cliff-hanger. <strong>


	3. Suprise Visitors

**All I have to say for this chapter is Enjoy It!**

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><p>The grand city of New Mobotropilis was very busy. People bustled in and out of shops and such. Mighty swerved to avoid a wheelbarrow full of children racing down a hill. "Stay close to me Ray. I wouldn't want you to get lost." He said, grabbing Ray's hand and pulling him underneath the shelter of an overhang. "I-I-It's so crowded here." Mighty nodded and looked around. Uncle Chuck's Diner sat on the corner. Mighty quickly decided that they could avoid rush hour and grab a bite to eat. Inside, it was packed. Mighty noticed that every seat was taken. Sonic and Sally were sitting in a booth together. Sonic saw Mighty and waved him over.<p>

"What you guys doing off the Island? Did something happen?" He asked them as he scooted over so Mighty could sit next to him. "Actually" Mighty said, picking up a menu. "There's a bit of tension up there right now, and Ray and I came down here to take a break for a day." Ray nodded. "Espio was acting k-k-k-kinda funny, and disappeared." Sonic made eye contact with a waitress and pointed to Mighty and Ray. "Mind-control? Or did he traitor on you guys again?" Mighty explained what happened. "He just doesn't get angry like that, and it worries me." Sonic looked at the waitress again. "Could she go any slower? I need to hurry!"

Amy walked into the restaurant and looked around. Her eyes found Sonic almost instantly. "SONIC! I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU EVERYWHERE!" She cried out, her eyes sparkling. Sonic's face looked a panicked. "Gotta go! See you Mighty-Ray. Come on Sally, RUN!" He grabbed Sally's hand and raced offto who knows where.

The waitress finally came over with food. "Hey, where's the other two people that were here?" She said angrily. Mighty and Ray shrugged. She set their food down and stalked off. The sound of yelling came from outside. Mighty and Ray looked at each other, and then opened the blinds. Bunnie's uncle: Beauregard Rabbot, was standing there with the rest of the Legion behind him.

Sonic was talking angrily to him and pointing in an arbitrary direction. An Armadillo behind Beauregard whispered something to him urgently. Mighty looked at her with surprise. It wasn't often he saw another Armadillo, and especially not one with robotic parts. Her shell was a deep green color, and she had green eyes. Her arms were metal. She looked unconcerned about everything around her.

Ray cracked the window open a little bit so they could hear. "We're not here to attack y'all." Beauregard said. "We're just passing through yonder. I reckoned y'all

would react this way. Didn't mean to cause any trouble. We be trying to get something that's ours, that's all." Sonic looked very dubious. "And may I ask what exactly are you looking for?" The Armadillo stepped forward. "As you know, we protect the Oil Ocean Refinery. A couple days ago, someone broke in, completely undetected and stole the main battery running the whole thing. Without it, the Refinery is doing nothing, and the battery is powerful enough to run Eggman's greatest weapons."

Beauregard took off his hat. "Matilda's right. That battery is strong enough to wipe a whole city off the map. Whoever stole it's planning something for sure. We just don't know what." Sonic tapped is foot, thinking. "What ya think, Sal?" Sally walked up to the Southern Rabbit. "For the safety of the public, I'm going to have to ask you to leave your army behind. You may bring three members with you. Sonic and I will help you, but I don't want any problems. Understood?" The rabbit bowed to Sally. "Of course Princess, anything to get our stuff back." Sally led Beauregard and part of his group off to the Castle of Acorn.

Ray and Mighty looked at each other. "W-W-W-What do you think of that?" Mighty shook his head. "I dunno, seems pretty honest to me. If they're lying, I'm sure Sonic will take care of it." Ray smiled. "N-N-No, I meant; what do you t-t-t-think of the Armadillo, M-M-Matilda?" Mighty lightly punched Ray's arm. "Hey! Why do you want to know?" Ray shrugged. "F-F-First Armadillo I've seen in an E-E-Egg Chapter. Espio did s-s-s-say…"

Mighty shot up. "You don't think… You can't possibly think… that… you think that was my SISTER?" Ray shrugged again. "I don't know. But she could be. U-U-Unless Espio was w-w-wrong.? Mighty thought about that. He remembered the day Espio told him that his sister was still alive. He hadn't been very happy, but he hadn't been very upset about it either. Espio WAS known for keeping secrets. He sat there in shock. He desperately wanted to talk to that Armadillo now.

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><p>Throwing the blade with deadly accuracy, Espio jumped over his opponent. Then landed directly on his shoulders and bringing him down to the ground. Espia clapped her hands. "Very good. You're getting better every day. It's almost flawless." Espio nodded and brushed himself off. Then he helped his training partner off the ground. "I've been practicing in my spare time." He walked toward his room, while his mother following close behind. "Are you sure you're okay? I know you're still upset and…" Espio turned back. "I'm fine." He opened his door, walked in and closed it.<p>

He couldn't believe how worried his mother had been over the last few hours. She had constantly asked about his well-being. It was like she expected him to burst into tears or something like that. Sitting down on his bed, he began to meditate, trying to forget the past few days. Something moved nearby. Espio felt the motion of somebody walking by him and heard light footsteps walk across the floor. He peered with one eye and looked around. It was absolutely silent. He studied the floor and surrounding area without getting off his bed. Small traces of red dirt lay on the floor. Espio knew that he had not been in a region or area with dirt of that color. His door was open just a crack. Espio tensed, getting ready for anything. His mother loved to test him to sharpen his skills.

Nothing happened. Slowly getting up, he scanned his room all around for a sign of anything. There wasn't anything. He walked out of his room and walked downstairs. If his "attacker" wasn't going to show, he wouldn't stay around long enough to be ambushed. Besides, it was almost lunchtime anyway.

Dropping from the ceiling, a figure landed on the floor of Espio's bedroom. Looking around, and double- checking that no one was there, he pulled out a brown package. It must have been extremely heavy, because he could barely pick it up. Pushing it behind a bookshelf, he hid the package in plain sight, knowing that Espio would not look for something like that. He pulled out a walkie talkie and turned it on.

"Package has been delivered." He said. "Now all we got to do is lay that false trail away from us… and toward him. There's no way this could fail." A voice on the other end spoke. "You better high-tail outta of there. You don't want the whole Shinobi coming down on you." The figure wrapped a cloak around his face so he wouldn't be recognized and walked right out of the clan entrance; taking the secret paths that only three people total knew about. Wait, four. The Clan bride had found those passages a long time ago. The guard on duty was a yellow chameleon with a chipped horn. He walked right passed him, nodding at him.

"Hey Bradley." He said walking out the entrance and disappearing in the trees. The Chameleon, Bradley rubbed his eyes and shook his head. "I need to start getting some sleep. I could have sworn that was…Nah..."

Espio was getting ready to leave. Thinking back, he realized that he had left the Chaotix in utter shock and disbelief and he didn't want scare them with thoughts that he traitored on them again. He decided to sneak out. His mother would want to keep a close eye on him for the next few days, worried that he would kill himself out of grief. He opened a passageway through a secret tunnel system. Only a couple people had ever been down here. He remembered the day when he had found it, quite by accident. Valdez and Liza had been with him. They had constantly used the tunnels to escape the attention of the Bride or the guards. Until his mother followed them and caught them using it. They hadn't used it since.

Dust covered the ground thickly and Espio tried not to get covered in it. Footprints lay in the dust ahead of him. Espio paused and studied them. They were about Espio's size and shape, and they went down the path. No one else knew about the tunnels. So had did these get down here? Shaking his head, he continued down the path. Maybe someone else found the path and was just exploring. Whatever the case, Espio had to hurry before someone noticed he was missing.

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><p><strong>Please Review! I hope this Chapter was pretty good.<strong>


	4. Unanswered Questions

**Okay, so here's the chapter that ended my writers block. Kudos to the people who patiently waited for this. :-)**

Mighty was still lost in thought when the duo eventually wandered up to AngelIsland. Ever since that day, when Espio had revealed it to him that his sister was alive- he'd been trying to locate her. For awhile, Mighty and Ray searched high and low for any trace of her. Eventually he had to give up hope. It had hurt to stop looking but the Chaotix needed them.

A light jab hit Mighty in the arm. He quickly broke out of his daydream and looked over. Ray sat there staring at him in worry. "I-I-I've been t-t-t-trying to t-t-talk to you for the last f-f-f-five minutes… are you okay?" The world around him came back into focus. He hadn't realized that while he was thinking they had already walked home. "Sorry Ray. Just thinking about my sister. Do you really think that the Armadillo we saw today was her?" Ray shrugged. "I d-d-dunno. It's l-l-late Mighty… I'm k-k-kind of tired. I'm just gonna g-g-go to b-b-b-bed." The small squirrel climbed into bed keeping watching Mighty was again lost in thought. Ray reached over and grabbed the book that Mighty had been reading last night. He tried to read to himself but his mind began to wander.

_I-I-I'm glad he is t-t-trying to find his s-s-sister. It's the o-o-one thing he's a-a-always wanted to d-do. But what will h-h-happen to me once he f-find her? I'm not his REAL b-b-b-brother. _

He shook his head. He was being silly. Mighty would never ever leave him behind. But he had forgotten to read to him, and didn't even tell him goodnight. In fact, Mighty was now standing outside, apparently day-dreaming. Ray put his head on his pillow and closed his eyes. Tomorrow would be a new day. By then, Mighty would be better. Hopefully.

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><p>As expected, Knuckles had a field day when Espio just appeared out of the blue. "WHERE ON EARTH WERE YOU?! IT'S BEEN WAY TOO LONG! WHAT IF SOMETHING HAD HAPPENED?! WE MIGHT HAVE NEEDED YOU OR SOMETHING!" Espio stood there staring the fiery Echidna down. Knowing him, he would calm down dramatically in a few minutes.<p>

"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting Knuckles. I do apologize. I was pre-occupied with other duties and couldn't return. Please forgive me." He said in his usual manner.

_He knows I'm a part of the Shinobi now… Why on earth is he so mad at me? It's not like I'm gonna back-stab him again._

Glaring for a few moments, the hot-headed leader grumbled something about smooth-talking ninjas and wandered off declaring "At least go down and check on Sonic and company. Just in case something important is happening down there."

With a small sigh, Espio nodded and left Knuckles to go down from Angel Island. He carefully timed his leap and jumped from Angel Island. He fell like a stone and at the last possible second, opened up a parachute and landed on the ground with perfect aim. At least with the mission that Knuckles gave him, he could avoid them for a little longer. It wasn't that he didn't like the Chaotix, he just wanted to completely regain his composure before he saw them again. He didn't want to surprise them by snapping at them. They were already worried about his condition enough.

He made his way into New Mobotropolis, walking around like nothing was wrong. He scanned the area with his eyes and quickly noticed that nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary and that all the people of the city were perfectly happy and fine. His mission was mostly over with. All he had to do now was check in with Sonic and make sure the Freedom Fighters didn't have any major problems going on that might affect the safety of Angel Island.

Making his way through the crowds of people, he noticed Sonic standing on a small podium and telling children tales of how he defeated Eggman. The children were staring at him with fierce intensity and seemed to enjoy the story.

Espio rolled his eyes and turned to go back. If Sonic was talking to kids, then there was no threat to worry about down here. Quickly hurrying back, he weaved through the mess of people going about their daily business.

Suddenly a cloaked woman ran into Espio. She stared up at him in shock, her bright green eyes piercing his gold.

"Ummm… So sorry sir, didn't mean to bump into you"

She turned and ran into the crowd before Espio could reply. Ignoring the people milling around him in the crowded environment, he stood at a stand-still. Unable to move, his thoughts were swirling around like a whirlpool in a storm. Memories, and all the pain he had been feeling for the last few days swelled up inside of him.

"Liza?" he asked in a small voice. The world seemed to blur around him and eventually went dark.


	5. Maybe the Start to Some Answers

**Sadly the last Chapter was a bit too short. I haven't posted a chapter for almost a year and when I did, it was short. :-P Anyway, here's Chapter 5; hopefully better than the last chapter but that's up to you guys. Enjoy!**

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><p>The world lay in darkness. Surrounding him; closing in. Mighty couldn't see or hear anything; only the pounding of his own heart and his breath.<p>

_"Hello?"_

_He called out confused, but no one answered him. Suddenly in front of him was a small house full of laughter. Smoke streamed out the chimney and lights were on inside. It wasn't a rich house; in fact, it was quite the opposite. Mighty had never seen such a poor house. Thatched roof, and glassless windows suggested poverty. And yet, there were still the sounds of happiness from the desolate building. He approached one of the windows, keeping low to the ground so that the people inside wouldn't be aware of his presence._

_Peeping in, he was shocked by the familiar scene in front of him. Four Armadillos sat around a small fire, eating tiny hunks of bread and little mugs of water. Mighty recognized everything about the place instantly. It was home. Two children shared their bread and were talking about innocent things like the weather. One of those kids was him and the other…._

"M-Mighty?"

A voice broke his thoughts. The house quickly faded into the black and was gone. Mighty opened his eyes and realized that he had been dreaming. He looked over. Ray was already dressed up in his usual jacket and shoes and had already eaten, judging from the dishes on the table. Mighty sat up and glanced around.

"What time is it? Did I miss anything?"

He asked noticing the how high the sun was in the sky.

"K-K-Knuckles called a meeting a-a-again. And Beauregard's l-l-legionaries are back."

Mighty's curiosity was immediately aroused. If the legionaries were here, then that meant that Matilda the Armadillo was there too. Mighty was surer than ever that it was his sister.

"Well then, let's go! Don't want to keep Knuckles waiting!"

He picked up Ray and raced down to where most of the Chaotix were already gathered. The Legionaries were there too. Mighty looked around and realized that only Espio was missing. Which was not uncommon, but it still annoyed the heck out of Knuckles.

Knuckles looked uncomfortable and ticked off.

"Now that everyone is here, would you mind explain why you wanted to talk to us?"

Knuckles directed to Beauregard. The rabbit narrowed his eyes at all of them.

"I don't reckon you folks have heard about our missing battery yet."

He explained the situation in detail.

"That Battery is powerful enough to blow this place sky high, if misused. It was stolen a week ago and we immediately thought it was the Sand-blast freedom fighters. Turns out we were wrong. Matilda here found something. We were able to connect it back to where Sonic's from. Sonic told us to talk to you folks. Seemed to know who was to blame but said that talking to all ya'll would work better. So here we are."

Knuckles looked unconvinced. He tapped his foot, either with annoyance or impatience. Mighty noticed that "Matilda" still had the exact same expression as yesterday and seemed to pay him no attention whatsoever.

"What was this mysterious thing you 'found'?"

Knuckles asked the group, looking like he would rather be doing more important things. Matilda pulled out a small silvery thing and held it out so the Chaotix could look at it. Mighty leaned in. The item in her hand happened to be a ninja star; no even worse, Espio's ninja star. They all knew it was his because just recently he'd started using ones with a purple band of color around the edges. He'd been showing them off ever since.

Most of the Chaotix were able to keep their composure. Only Charmy looked surprised and started to speak.

"Hey, doesn't that belong to…"

Before he could finish, Vector pinched his leg, hard enough to shut the bee up. Knuckles looked at it for another second then looked back up.

"Sorry, don't know who it belongs to. Guess you're out of luck."

The legionized rabbit looked at Knuckles and must have realized that no one there was going to tell him anything.

"Look here, I'm not gonna butcher the culprit; I just want to get my battery back. I think we all know that the person who stole it is up here, on this island. So just give them up or show me where they are. I promise; I won't harm them in any way."

Knuckles looked down at the ground in thought then looked back up at the Legion.

"Give my team a minute. I need to talk to them."

Beauregard shrugged and nodded and began to talk to his followers. Knuckles moved the Chaotix into a tight circle. They all looked at each other grimly.

"I think we all know that that ninja star was Espio's, so I'm going to skip ahead and ask what the hell we're gonna do about it."

Knuckles began, glancing from person to person. Mighty realized that no one was going to say anything.

"Well, we know that Espio is a major part of his clan; most likely this battery situation is related to that."

He said, still thinking mostly about his sister. Honestly, Espio could do whatever he wanted. The Shinobi was not under Knuckle's jurisdiction; therefore, Knuckles could not flame Espio for what he did there. He looked back and noticed that Matilda was sitting alone, adjusting her metal arms. Mighty really wished he could talk to her; maybe slip away from the group while they were still talking.

"We don't even know where he is!"

Vector hissed loudly, bringing Mighty back to the conversation going on.

"Are we really going to give him up to the legionaries?"

Julie-Su asked Knuckles, her eyes staring deep into his.

Knuckles sighed.

"No, we're not. I don't care how many wonderful things Sonic has said about them, they're still Legionaries and they still work for Eggman. I don't really want to hand Espio over to our enemies. On the other hand, we should probably find him before anyone else does. Find out why he stole it and such. If we can warn him in time, he can disappear and the Legionaries will have no choice but to go home empty-handed."

Knuckles looked pretty happy with that speech, now that they had a plan.

'B-B-B-But, they said the battery was d-d-dangerous; that it could d-destroy Angel I-I-Island. What if Espio went t-t-t-traitor again?"

Ray put in, looking slightly worried. Every Chaotix member immediately thought back to when the Iron Dominion took over and when Espio went with his clan instead of his friends.

"But that was a long time ago."

Charmy whined, looking absolutely horrified at the thought of Espy attacking them.

"That's why WE'RE gonna find him first."

Knuckles replied.

"Before something really bad happens."

Mighty again glanced at Matilda, who was now watching the other legionaries talk amongst themselves. Knuckles broke up the group and walked up to Beauregard, the rest of the team close behind. Mighty split form the group and carefully made his way to Matilda. The only person who noticed him was Ray.

She quickly noticed Mighty coming toward her and stared at him with deep suspicion. Mighty walked up to her and held out his hand.

"I'm Mighty. Nice to meet you."

She stared at his hand, but did not take it; forcing Mighty to eventually drop his.

"What do you want?"

She asked him coolly, glaring at him with obvious dis-trust. Mighty was not discouraged, he had figured that she would be somewhat weirded out by some random Armadillo walking up to her. Mighty stood there a few moments trying to come up with the correct words to say.

"I don't know if you remember me, but I'm Mighty. I was raised in Mercia and eventually exiled. Ummm… my parents were killed when I was really young. I never got to see them again. But I had a sister too. She was really young when I was exiled, but I'm pretty sure she's still alive. What I'm trying to say, umm… is that I think that you're my sister."

Mighty felt like he had screwed up big time. How in Mobius were you supposed to word that? He knew how it had sounded. _Hi, you have no clue who I am but we're family. Isn't that wonderful?_ He probably sounded like a dolt.

Matilda stared at him for a few minutes and then replied like as cool as before, as if she were mentioning the weather.

"I think you've mistaken me with someone else. I did live in Mercia, but I had no family. I was abandoned; forgotten. The only family I have is Beauregard. I think you'd better get back to your friends now."

She got up and walked away from him, back to the Legion. Mighty was crushed but went back over to where the rest of the Chaotix were. Ray stared at him, noticing the pain in Mighty's expression, and looked away. Knuckles was sitting there, lost in thought.

"Julie-Su, contact Sonic. I sent Espio down there yesterday. See if or when he left. Maybe we can work out where he was planning to go. Vector, take Charmy and search the island. Maybe he's up here somewhere. The rest of you need to stick around the island. If Espio shows up ANYWHERE, I want to know about it. Got it?"

They all nodded and split to their different tasks. Ray came over to where Mighty was standing.

"She didn't k-k-know you?" he asked quietly, so Knuckles wouldn't hear.

Mighty sighed and shook his head no.

"I have no idea what to do now."

* * *

><p>"Espio, you okay? Hey, Espio!"<p>

Opening his eyes, Espio found himself lying down staring up at none other than Sonic, who was looking down at him. He sat up and quickly realized that he somehow missed a good ten hours. Sonic was still staring at him.

"You okay there Esp? Apparently according to Tails, you fainted."

There was a slight smile in Sonic's expression as he said that.

Espio felt embarrassed. He was a ninja, for God's sake and fainted because…. _Oh wait…. LIZA!_ He thought suddenly.

"I've got to go Sonic. Thank you for helping me."

Sonic shrugged.

"No problem. Don't worry, I won't tell Knuckles and Co. you fainted. Even though it IS quite funny."

Espio glared at him and sat up and got off the bed that he must have been laying on. Walking outside into the bright sunshine, his mind racing about what to do next. If Liza is alive, then where is she? Why hasn't she come back to the Clan?

Millions of questions whirled around in his skull. He decided to go home first, maybe see if his mother could him figure out what happened to her. He immediately altered his course so that he was heading in the direction of Dragon Kingdom. He wasn't sure whether to be extremely happy that she was alive or worried and anxious about seeing her.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Sonic was practicing his guitar. He didn't need to, there was no real reason to have to play such a thing; but it was a favorite hobby of his. Right at the moment he was struggling with a certain cord. Across the room, his computer came to life and Julie-Su's face appeared on the miniature screen.<p>

"Hey Sonic? You there?"

She asked, tapping the screen . Sonic carefully placed his electric guitar on the bed and got up.

"I'm here Julie-Su. What does Knuckles need this time?"

Julie-Su adjusted her screen so her whole face fit and looked at Sonic.

"Have you seen Espio recently? Knuckles is looking for him and he was sent down to check on you sometime yesterday."

Sonic smiled and chuckled a little.

"Are you kidding me? If you had contacted me five minutes ago, I would have had Espio himself talk to you. He left, for who knows where."

Julie-Su looked flabbergasted.

"He was THERE? Are you sure? Do you know what he was doing?"

"Yeah he was here, he ummm…. sort of got himself knocked out and I was making sure he was okay. Seemed in a real big hurry to leave though."

Sonic replied, looking out his window to see if Espio was still near-by.

"What do you mean 'Knocked out'? what the heck happened to him? Did he say where he was going?"

Sonic sighed and then decided to answer the question honestly before Knuckles came to the conclusion that Espio had been kidnapped.

"He sort of….. fainted. And no, he did not say where he was going. Doesn't he have a clan or something he goes to?"

Julie-Su stared at Sonic in puzzlement.

"He…. FAINTED? As in legitimately swooned and fell over unconscious? My God, wait until the Chaotix hear about that. And in answer to your question, yes, he does have a Clan; but no one knows where it is."

She sighed put her head into her hands.

"Well, thanks anyway Sonic. I got to get back to Knuckles. Contact us if you find anything."

Sonic nodded.

"Will do. See ya later Ju-Su."

He closed the screen and glanced outside again. No sign of that purple chameleon anywhere. What has he gotten himself into? Sonic thought.

* * *

><p>The ramshackle base was NOT the best place for a hide-out. The ceiling dripped with what looked like toxic goo of some sort. Every surface in there was cold and the whole place was dark. Musty smells wafted from unseen corners.<p>

Liza knew that no one would find them there. But at the same time, she was getting extremely tired of staying hidden and avoiding old friends and familiar faces. She looked around before setting down the cloak she used when going out in public on a metal desk. He was not here. He never was when she wanted to actually talk to him, but on days when she felt like being alone; he came out of nowhere to talk. Actually it wasn't really talking. it was more like listening to someone rant for six hours about the same topic over and over again.

When she had first been transformed from cold robotic form back to Mobian, her first thought was to go back to Espio. She knew that he missed her like crazy and had long since buried their friendship, believing her to be dead. Before she could go back to her clan, however, another person contacted her first.

"Liza? Are you back?"

A voice sounded out of another room. Liza sighed deeply and replied.

"Yes, I am. How are you today?"

The voice from the other room was silent and then out of the darkness, a deep blue chameleon glared at her.

"I thought I told you to stop asking me that. I'm fine Liza. Where have you been?"

Liza was slightly angry, and decided to annoy the hell out of him.

"I saw Espio today."

She said, watching him suddenly look very dark and angry. She immediately regretted telling him, and wandered away from where he stood , hoping to sit down before he started yelling at her.

"What… why… I told you to stay away from him!"

He began, coming out of the blackness toward her

"I specifically told you to keep him out of it until I decided to let him in on the loop! What did you say to him?!"

He snarled at her, and Liza flinched back.

"Nothing! I told him Nothing! I just ran into him, thats all! I panicked and fled the second I realized it was him! I don't even know if he recognized me. I didn't ruin anything."

He calmed down then, as if he had never been angry in the first place.

"Good. As much as I would love to tell Espio everything, we can't. Not yet. We need to finish phase 1 first. Then we can think about contacting him; if the situation calls for it."

It was Liza's turn to yell.

"If?! I thought you said we WERE going to tell him! For God's sake, you're his mentor! Don't you care about him at all?!"

He stayed quiet for awhile, then replied softly.

"I do. I really do. But I can't…. I just can't tell him anything. Not yet… If he found out what I was planning, I don't think he would let me continue. He'd find some argument against it; I know he would. Give me time Liza… I need to think."

With that, he was gone; back into the shadowy darkness he had come from. Liza put her head down on a table. She needed sleep. It had been another long tedious day, and she still didn't know what to do. One side of her wanted to run to Espio, run to her clan and try to restart her old life. The other side, the loyal side, couldn't leave. Not when the chameleon in the room next door needed her help. She had always cared for him, and that wouldn't stop now. But she cared for Espio too.

* * *

><p><strong>This is probably the longest chapter so far. :-) Hope you all enjoyed it… Chapter 6 hopefully will be out within the next couple weeks. No promises though XD<strong>


	6. Framed

**Hey Guys! Just Espio's POV for this Chap.! Don't worry though, Mighty will be back next chapter! Every character except for Bradley and a few random chameleons belong to SEGA and Archie Comics. Bradley belongs to me. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>By the time Espio got to his Clan, it was almost nighttime. The normal guard; Bradley was still on duty and nodded to Espio as he went in.<p>

"The Bride is expecting you."

Bradley said waving Espio in. Espio walked the wandering paths of the clan caves, his mind still in a bit of a whirl. Memories and emotions concerning Liza were ever pressing upon his mind. The fact that she was alive made Espio dizzy and faint. As he walked down pathways, a lot of the chameleons he passed were giving him a look; the kind that made Espio's stomach do a flip flop. Something was up and it wasn't good. He increased his pace a little until he found himself outside his mother's chambers.

He rapped quietly on the door, ignoring the continuous stares of other reptiles around him.

"Come on in."

He opened the door and entered, slightly puzzled by his fellow clan members. His mother sat on her usual cushion; holding a strange metal box of some sort on her lap. Espio approached her slowly and bowed, not forgetting his formalities. He kneeled down in front of her, with his head down and waited. The bride stared at him for a few seconds with an unreadable expression and waved her guards out. The second they were gone, Espio lifted his head and eyed his mother.

Both of them started to speak, and ended up fading into silence. Finally, the Bride waved her hand at him.

"You first."

Espio couldn't think of any really good way to get into the topic so he went for the direct approach.

"I have reason to believe that Liza is alive"

Across from him, his mother Espia, raised an eyebrow but showed no extreme emotion.

"This has nothing to do with the recent bouts of grief you've been showing?"

Espio shook his head "no".

"I see…"

She said, a slightly puzzled look on her face.

"Then what happened?"

she asked, starting to pour herself a cup of tea. Espio sat there, unsure of what to say. Something was off; he could tell. Normally, the second the guards were gone, she dropped all formalities and talked to him as an equal. At this moment in time, it felt like a wall had been put up between them. He wanted to tell her exactly how he felt, but the situation felt strange as if he and his mother were playing chess; plotting their next move.

"I bumped into her today while I was in new Mobotropolis."

He replied, matching her cool demeanor.

She slowly sipped her tea and said nothing back. Espio felt extremely uncomfortable.

"Is something troubling you, mother?"

He questioned carefully. She set the teacup down and nonchalantly said;

"You tell me."

Espio had no idea what could possibly be wrong at that moment.

"Is it Liza? I promise, I'm not making any of it up, She's alive, I swear and I promise that I will prove it so you don't have to…"

She was shaking her head. Espio's words faded off and he was silent. She lifted the metal box off her lap and set it in front of him.

"Do you know what this is?"

Espio eyed it for a few seconds. It wasn't really a pretty or special box and was slightly dinged up and rusted.

"A box?"

the chameleon muttered, sarcastically stating the obvious. With a sigh, his mother undid the lock holding the box closed. The box was completely empty.

Now Espio was beyond confused. Why was his mother showing him an empty box?

"This was found in your room. It used to contain a highly energized battery; one that could easily be used as a terrorist weapon of mass destruction. A report has been given to me that the people it was stolen from found YOUR ninja star at the scene. Care to explain?"

Bewildered, Espio stared at the box. A battery? That could be used as a terrorist weapon? he had never seen the thing in his life, nor would he have had the slightest inclination to steal such a thing.

"I-I'm not sure what you think I did mother."

She snapped the box shut and handed it to him. With a small sigh, she spoke again; all formalities from before lost.

"I don't think you did anything Espio. It's my duty as Bride to question suspects."

Espio smiled at her with a small smile.

"Like I would really steal a battery and become a terrorist."

She laughed a little at that, the mood between them a little lighter.

"There is a major problem however."

She spoke again, more serious.

"There's enough evidence here to get you arrested, or worse, killed. I tried my best to convince the Clan of your innocence and I will continue to try. But right now, everything is pointing at you. As such, every blaming finger will search you out. Every single person from Sonic to a random hobo on the street will be looking for you. You need to hide yourself away or find a way to prove your innocence."

Espio stood up and looked back at the door that lead out to the rest of the clan.

"The I can't go back through there."

His mother also stood and quickly walked over to a mirror. She turned a knob on the top and the mirror rotated and showed a secret tunnel that led out.

"Good luck, my son. I'll cover for you the best I can, but The most I can give you is an hour. Fly like the wind and don't stay in one place too long. You'll get caught."

He bowed to her and carefully walked into the tunnel. His mother caught his arm before he was all the way through.

"One more thing. If you do find a way to prove yourself innocent, You have my full permission to find Liza. Good luck."

She closed the mirror-door and Espio was in darkness, with only the sound of water dripping echoing around him. He walked at a brisk pace, trying not to make too much noise or sound. Behind him, a commotion of some sort could be heard. Yelling, and the pounding of feet. Espio quickened his pace until he was almost silently running. The tunnel winded through many twists and turns until Espio found himself at a dead end.

He tapped the walls, trying to find an opening. behind him, the sound of multiple feet echoed through the tunnel.

_They must have found the entrance…_.

He thought rather unhappily. It seems that he wouldn't get an hour head start. Finally, he found a lever in the wall and pushed it upright; opening a door in the wall. He raced out it and into the open sunshine. Right now, he was standing in a small remote forest located just East of Dragon Kingdom. He took off, running quickly through the trees trying to decide his next move.

_I have to find a place to hide. I can't keep running like this. Why me? Why am I being framed?_

He asked himself, still slightly puzzled.

_What was the point_?

A ninja star flew past his head and hit the tree in front of him. Whirling around, he came face to face with several of his own clan members. He didn't feel like fighting any of them. Even if he beat them, he would come out of the fight with some pretty serious injuries. He couldn't take that chance.

He pulled out a small black ball, about the size of a marble. He kept it hidden in his palm and eyed his fellow Chameleons. One of them, a bright red chameleon with a scar across his face stepped forward.

"Surrender Espio or we will kill you."

Espio just stood there, thinking through his options. Where to run, where to run. If he went to Angel Island, maybe his friends could help. Unless, of course, they already heard the news and think he traitored again. Plus, Angel Island would be too obvious. His clan would expect that.

Which is why he should go there. Espio smiled slightly. His clan were expecting him to be smart. They knew he wouldn't go to Angel Island, because he had friends there. They would expect him to hide; either in a crowd (which was risky), or in the middle of nowhere. (less risky, but still dangerous)

"Last chance."

The scarlet chameleon stated.

"Before we have to bring your mutilated body back to the clan."

Espio raised his hands above his head. Slowly, the group of chameleons moved toward him with handcuffs. Without much movement, Espio let the small black ball fall. It hit the ground and burst; releasing a dark purple smoke. Espio immediately faded into the ever-growing cloud and ran off in the opposite direction.

Behind him, the Chameleons were coughing and choking on the smoke, trying to find him in the dense cloud. When he thought that he had run a far enough distance, he began to run in zig-zags.

That way, trackers would have a tougher time figuring out his trail and would have a hell of a time following him. Bounding over logs and rocks, he kept running until he was in the heart of Dragon Kingdom.

He stopped briefly, taking a moment to catch his breath. He was in a different part of the forest, close to the border of the Kingdom. A few more hours of running, and he would be near enough to Angel Island. The bushes behind him rustled and Espio tensed up, ready at any moment to strike.

A familiar yellow chameleon with a chipped horn stumbled out of the bushes, panting heavily. Espio relaxed, though only slightly, and faced the reptile.

"Bradley."

He stated, slightly surprised.

'How did you…."

"Find you?"

Bradley said, still trying to catch his breath.

"I'm not a guard for nothing, ya know. I'm also a pretty good tracker."

Espio watched Bradley with a sense of decreasing suspicion. It didn't seem as if the yellow chameleon was planning on attacking any time soon.

"I heard what happened."

Bradley continued.

"That you got framed."

Bradley sat down, still breathing pretty hard. Espio remembered with some amusement that when Bradley was younger, he had hated running.

"You don't think I did it?"

Bradley shook his head.

"Nope. That's why I'm here. I think I know something that might help you."

Espio waited patiently for his friend to catch his breath.

"A couple days ago, when I was on duty, this chameleon walked out."

Espio snorted.

"That's a rarity."

He stated sarcastically.

"This chameleon was different. He had a hood on and I couldn't see his face. But he knew my name and talked to me as he was leaving. And I thought nothing of it at the time but now….. Don't think I'm crazy or anything, but it kind of sounded like…. Valdez."

Espio stared at him in disbelief.

"Why didn't you stop this 'mysterious figure'?"

Bradley sighed and scratched his head.

"He was leaving, not coming in. I figured one of the earlier guards must have let him in."

"And you said it sounded like Valdez? Are you sure?"

Bradley nodded.

"Pretty sure. You two were the only two people who really said anything nice to me, growing up."

Espio stared at the sky above him, his mind now a tornado of thought.

_First Liza, now Valdez? Are all my ghosts coming back to haunt me? For so long, they've been dead. Is it possible that they're out there somewhere, waiting for me to find them?_

A sudden realization crossed his mind.

"You said telling me this would help me."

Bradley nodded.

"If you were framed, someone had to put that box in your room. I figured that the cloaked guy would your number one suspect. Honestly, I did see him. He's real, I promise."

Espio gritted his teeth. If that was Valdez, he couldn't understand why his old friend and mentor would frame him for anything. For now, he was going to go with the theory that Bradley was mistaken and that it was just a random cloaked chameleon. Most likely, one of his own clan members. But something in the back of his mind nagged him.

Liza ran when she saw you. She didn't say "hello." She ran. Why would she run unless… unless she had something to hide?

Bradley was still sitting there, watching Espio.

"Thank you Bradley. You did help. I need to go now, before you know, I get caught."

Bradley stood up and nodded.

"Sure thing! Best of luck to you Espio!"

And he ran, back into the trees. Espio stared at the spot for a few seconds.

_Stick to the plan, Espio._

He thought to himself. His feet began to move again and he continued on his journey back to Angel Island, a million questions churning.

* * *

><p><strong>For those of you who want to know more about Bradley (my fancharacter) or have any questions about him, please look on my profile under "Character Profiles" to learn everything from his age to his personality. Further questions canbe PM'd to me :-D<strong>

**Hope you guys liked the chapter!**


	7. Questions and Answers

Mighty didn't really want to help search Angel Island for Espio, but Knuckles was adamant.

"We have to keep looking. All of us. The Legionaries are starting to get impatient. We have to find him first, got it?"

Reluctantly, Mighty agreed. It wasn't that he wasn't worried about Espio, it was just that right now, he was still cut up about Matilda. He didn't feel like doing much of anything. The other thing was that they were getting nowhere. If Espio was still on Angel Island, which Mighty highly doubted at this point, he was hiding really well from them. Chances were that Espio went off to his clan. It's the only place he would be right now.

He was standing on the outskirts of Rainbow Valley with Vector and Ray. All three of them had agreed that continuing to look on Angel Island was a complete waste of time.

"He's not here."

Vector grumbled angrily.

"And Knuckles is a fool for thinking so."

Mighty didn't think Knuckles was a fool,but it was very likely Espio was not here nor would he ever be. He sat down on a fallen tree and sighed. The area around him was green and full of life. Mighty felt like he had aged ten years. Two days ago, he had been perfectly happy and would have been one of the fiercest searchers, but now? He didn't exactly care.

Ray noticed his expression and came to sit with him. Meanwhile, Vector was still grumbling and was on his way to report to Knuckles for the fifth time that day that Espio couldn't be found.

Mighty looked over at Ray, trying his best not to cry. Bitter sadness flowed through him as he realized how many of his hopes and dreams had been crushed with Matilda's words. The family he had always wanted was out of reach now, and it seemed like Mighty would never truly have a sibling.

"I-I-I-It's okay Mighty. Maybe s-s-s-she'll come a-a-around eventually."

Ray words bounced off Mighty and faded into nothingness. Mighty put his head in his hands and cried. She was never going to believe him, and even if she did, she wanted nothing to do with him. His one mission in life for the past year and a half had just fallen apart and he didn't know how to move forward.

"If Knuckles asks for me, I'm ill or something."

Mighty said, standing up and walking off in the direction of his home. He didn't know how he was going to get through today, or for that matter the week. Everything seemed broken and out of focus to him, as he walked home right then.

Ray was still sitting in the same spot, staring at the empty log next to him. Mighty had ignored him, again. Something about that fact hurt him worse than any weapon on earth. Ray knew how much finding his sister had meant to Mighty and he had always tried to support that. He hadn't realized how obsessed with the idea Mighty would become. Nor had he realized what would happen to him if Mighty had actually had a happy reunion with Matilda.

_I'm just an extra. Mighty doesn't really, does he?_

Now it was his turn to cry. He wanted Mighty to be with him again, to read to him every night, and always find something kind to say. He knew that it was selfish, but he wanted Mighty to forget about his sister.

_I want my brother back._

He thought to himself, praying and hoping. He wanted the care-free Mighty, not the depressed Mighty.

He heard rustling in the bushes and looked up, half expecting Vector to have come back, or maybe Mighty remembered that he left Ray behind. A flash of blue as someone ran by. It wasn't fast enough to be Sonic, and it was a dark blue; not a color that anyone he knew had.

Quietly, he worked his way toward the bushes and looked through the woods into the distance. What he saw shocked him. He could see a very tired looking purple chameleon walking through the woods, covered in dirt and scratches, as if he had been running for a long time.

_It's Espio!_

Ray thought, happy that he had finally found their friend.

_What was that flash of blue I saw? I only see Espio now, and he's purple._

He was about to call out to the chameleon when that same flash of blue leaped out of a nearby tree and quickly knocked Espio out before he had a chance to defend himself. Espio crumpled to the ground, and Ray saw that the flash of blue had actually been another chameleon. The blue chameleon began dragging Espio off into the nearby trees.

Ray cursed himself for not doing anything to help. Inside, however, he knew that the Blue chameleon would have probably defeated him easily; especially if Espio had not had known the person was there. Gathering up his courage, Ray decided to follow them.

_If I can find out what's going on, then maybe Mighty will pay more attention to me!_

Happy thoughts streamed through his head. He zipped around trees and bushes, staying low to the ground and yet keeping the blue chameleon in sight. He followed them for what seemed like hours until they were standing outside a ramshackle base. Ray watched as the blue chameleon yanked open the door and walked in, still dragging Espio like a rag doll. Ray eyed the building, trying to find a window of some sort. He found one, full of dirt and cracks; but a window nonetheless.

Inside, Espio was tied up and put into a corner and the blue chameleon called to someone. Another chameleon, this one pink, came out of an opposite room. The pink chameleon rushed past the blue one and checked on Espio, feeling for any injuries. Wanting to hear what was going on, Ray carefully lifted the window part way up; just enough so he could hear.

"Valdez?! What have you done?! You could have killed him!"

The blue chameleon, who Ray figured was Valdez snorted.

"I just knocked him out Liza. I never planned to kill him."

The pink chameleon, or Liza, glared at Valdez in anger.

"You said we were going to talk to him"

"We are. I just wanted to make sure he was tied up first."

Liza was still glaring.

"Why? You really think Espio would try to go against you?"

Valdez stared at Espio for a few seconds and then replied.

'I don't know. I'm NOT taking a risk. If Espio wants to help me, then fine. If not…"

There was a hint of a threat in his words; enough so that Liza reacted. She began to untie Espio, ignoring Valdez as he tried to stop her.

"Espio is not your enemy, Valdez. I would have thought that you of all people knew that."

Ray looked behind the chameleons and saw some sort of weird ship thing. He could only see the front half of it, but he could tell that it was small and old. It had Eggman's face on the front and looked like it had gotten some recent repairs. He quietly moved away from the window and moved around the building until he was closer to the ship. There was another window; this one missing most of the glass and he stretched up on tip-toe to look through it. The ship was pretty small, and the entrance hatch was wide open. Inside, Ray could see boxes piled up in the back and tools laying around as if someone had been working on it recently.

Deciding to get a closer look, he grabbed the ledge of the window and pulled himself up, trying his best to not to make noise or hurt himself. He wiggled through the window and scratched himself on a sharp piece of glass. He landed on the floor of the abandoned and looked for any injuries. his shoulder was scratched and a tuft of fur was missing, but besides that, he was fine. He could still hear arguing voices from where Valdez and Liza where. He quickly raced aboard the ship before anyone could see him. In his hurry, he kicked a small can, which went flying through the air and bounced off a wall with a rather loud CLANG!

Panicking, The small squirrel tore open a random box and found it empty. He dove in and pulled the lid down over him. The voices had ceased. Footsteps approached the ship and Ray tried his best now to breathe too loud.

"Did you hear that?"

Valdez asked suspiciously, moving toward the ship.

"I'm sure it was just a flicky or some other small creature."

Liza replied coming up behind him. The footsteps came aboard the ship, awfully close to Ray's not so great hiding spot. The footfalls stopped right above Ray. The young squirrel starting praying that he wouldn't be found.

"Looks like a can fell over."

Liza voice said, from the other side of the ship. Valdez sighed and moved away from Ray and backed out of the ship.

"I told you not to stack them like that."

Valdez said, and moved off. Liza followed him out and Ray was left alone. He decided not to move, just in case they came back. he curled up on the bottom of the dark box and prepared himself for a long night.

* * *

><p>The ground was cold and hard. Espio opened his eyes slowly, his head ringing with pain.<p>

_What…? Where am I?_

He looked up and saw that he was lying in the middle of some sort of base. The place was desolate; obviously Eggman had not been here in years. He tried to sit up, but found that he was dizzy and he had a blinding headache. He looked around again and began to feel a sense of familiarity. He tried to sit up again, and succeeded this time, grabbing on to a metal stool for support. Now he was sure the place was familiar.

_I've been here before…._.

he thought to himself. Memories flashed through his mind

_This is… this is where I killed Valdez!_

Over in the corner behind Epsio was the robotizer that he vividly remembered from so long ago. The sound of footsteps attracted his attention. He tensed up, ready for anything. Well, mostly anything. Anything but what came running toward him.

"Espio!"

Liza came toward him and wrapped her arms around him, almost knocking him off balance. he could only stare at her in shock.

"Liza…?"

She smiled a small smile at him and helped him sit down on the stool he had used to pull himself up.

"Are you okay? Do you need anything? Are you hungry?"

Espio looked at her, still shocked and confused.

"Where have you been? Why did you run? Why are you here? Why am I here? What…"

She lifted her hand up and he was silent.

"Questions later. You probably want to eat something."

He watched as she walked out of the room and he could hear her grabbing stuff. He sat there, still bewildered and unsure of what was going on. Liza was alive! That fact alone made him happy, but there were loopholes. someone knocked him out, and pretty hard. Liza had not made her presence known until now for some strange reason. Why were they here, at this old abandoned base that brought both of them terrible memories? Why did she run when he first run into her? There were many more questions, and Espio didn't have the answer to any of them.

Liza came back with a small bowl of noodles and set it down in front of Espio. the noodles were of the cheap variety, and they definitely weren't that healthy. He carefully picked a drop of the soup the noodles were in and sniffed it. He was awfully hungry, just now realizing that he hadn't eaten much of anything for awhile. Instead of eating, he pushed the bowl away from him.

"I'm not that hungry."

Sighing, Liza picked up a pair of chopsticks and ate some of the noodles.

"It's not poisoned."

She pushed the bowl back and handed him a second pair of chopsticks. Espio searched Liza's face for any sign of deception and found none. He slowly ate the noodles, and finished the bowl.

"Does this count as later?"

He slid the empty bowl aside and awkwardly stared at her. It had been too long since he'd seen her and she mostly looked the same. She looked more tired and stressed out however,and her smile was harder to find than before. She sighed and nodded slowly.

"Where have you been?"

Espio shot off as the first question. She didn't reply for a few moments, and a very familiar voice behind Espio spoke.

"She was with me."

Espio turned and came face to face with Valdez, who had somehow gotten into the room without anyone seeing him. Valdez walked over and hugged Espio, who was once again shocked.

"Both of you are alive?"

He asked, his heart soaring into happiness. However, his mind was still turning and thinking, trying to explain things.

Valdez smiled at him and nodded.

"Alive as we'll ever be. Your head still hurting?"

Espio glared at the blue chameleon.

"You knocked me out from behind? Why, exactly?"

Valdez grinned, and patted Espio on the shoulder.

"I wanted to bring you here without having to drag you here. It's much easier this way."

Espio's eyes narrowed into slits.

"Easier for what?"

Valdez laughed, walking away from Espio and toward one of the walls.

"You're still cautious and suspicious as ever. Guess I did train you pretty well. Well, mostly well. You have a bad habit of forgetting to check your surroundings when you panic. Tends to get you in trouble a lot."

Espio pouted at his mentor in annoyance. He had been in a panic when he was on Angel Island and he hadn't been checking his surroundings.

Espio finally decided he had enough of all the mystery.

"What is going on, exactly?"

He asked, waiting for someone to answer him honestly this time around. Valdez smiled and did a short mocking bow.

"As you wish."

He said.

"I have found a way to kill Eggman once and for all."

The statement was shocking, and seemed to Espio as a small miracle.

"You have?!"

Both of them nodded. Espio thought that that fact was wonderful, Eggman being the mastermind behind many, many problems. He still wasn't sure of why the whole thing had been shrouded in mystery though. Valdez was pacing and began talking.

"A while back, both Liza and I had been robotized. Neither of us had been sure of why or who had rescued us, but we were grateful. I began to travel back to Angel Island, where I was eventually planning on going to Dragon Kingdom. However, on the way, every single piece of hatred I felt built up inside. I was mad at Eggman, and mad at the scum who had helped him. I had lost years of my life, I missed seeing you officially graduate and become a full ninja. I missed my friends, Clan and Rainbow Valley alike. I happened to be in some sort of desert at the time and I found some sort of Eggman base. It was an oil refinery of some sort and I happily snuck in.

"For awhile, I stole food and supplies, planning and thinking. I was walking past the main control room when I heard some guard get told off for touching the main energy source; a rather large battery. Curious, I looked at it and found it to be a large and well, potentially dangerous energy source. I tore it out of it's plug and escaped."

Espio's head shot up and remembered that Bradley had said he'd seen the Blue chameleon at his clan.

"How did the case for it end up in my room and my ninja star end up in that base?"

Valdez just shrugged and continued talking.

"They ummm…. sort of saw me a little bit when I was running out of there. Seemed really easy at the time to drop something to lead them away from me. The only thing I had was a ninja star of yours."

Espio couldn't help but feel angry at Valdez. He crossed his arms and stared silently at the older chameleon, holding in the bitter words he wanted to say.

"I ended up stealing one of their airships and took off. I landed the thing on Angel Island and found Liza. She had been on her way to Rainbow Valley when she saw the ship. She had been shocked and surprised to see me of all people come out of the ship."

Espio glanced over at Liza. She was standing in the background, staring at the ground and not putting in a single word.

"We agreed upon a plan and decided to hide out until the time was right to make it happen."

Valdez's story had holes in it, Espio noticed unhappily. He wished that he could ignore the fact that Valdez was attempting to hide stuff from him, but it was hanging in his face, ringing every alarm bell and practically screaming screaming in his face.

"So, say I agree to help you kill Eggman. How exactly do you plan on doing so?"

He said, purposely keeping emotion out of his voice. He was still upset and didn't want show it quite yet.

"Well…."

Valdez took a while to answer, and Epsio noticed that Liza had moved a few feet farther away from them, still not looking at either of them. Finally, Valdez answered, his voice the only cheery thing in that place.

"The battery, when the energy inside is charged up too much, will explode and cause a rather large explosion. One we hope will kill Eggman."

"How big of an explosion?"

Espio asked carefully.

"Enough so that the entire Robotropolis will blow sky high."

Espio was shocked. He imagined that terrible place blowing up, a fact that he wouldn't really mind; but then he imagined the toxic air in the aftermath and the kinds of things that would blow up with the battery and he felt sick to his stomach. The bomb wouldn't just affect Robotropolis and kill Eggman and his main headquarters. It would probably kill anyone in the nearby area, and cause sickness and disease for more than a hundred miles; maybe even the whole world.

"Why am I here, exactly?"

He asked, his thoughts spiraling out of control. This was huge, and would affect way too many people. Heck, Angel Island would probably be affected by toxic smoke and debris from the place.

Valdez looked at him curiously.

"Liza and I thought that you would help us. Robotropolis isn't exactly a walk in the park and any sort of help would be wonderful. we need to infiltrate it and find a way to disable most of his army before Eggman notices us. Then we will connect the battery to the main power grid and make sure we get out of there before it blows. You in?"

He couldn't think right now. Too many things were at stake at that moment. If he said yes, he would kill thousands, maybe millions of people, evil and good alike. He would also get his friends back. If he said no, he wasn't sure what would happen. It wouldn't end very well.

"I… can't. No, I won't. Valdez, you're smart enough to know how much destruction will come out of all of this. I can't help you and I won't stand by and let you do this. Lets come up with a better plan, a safer plan. I know Eggman ruined your life, but this is a bit on the extreme, isn't it?"

Valdez's expression quickly changed into something akin to rage.

"Sorry you feel that way, Espio. Yes people will die, and maybe thats a necessary sacrifice. It all will come to the greater good. I'm going forward with the plan, with or without your help. Worst comes to worst, I can kill you or capture you and leave you behind. You will be blamed for the explosion and I will get off scot free, seeing how I'm "dead". Liza, go get the ship started. So for the last time, are you helping us or not?"

With a sigh, Espio pulled out two of his Kunai and faced off against his mentor.

"No. And if you won't stop this crazy plan, I'll have to stop you."

Valdez laughed at him and pulled out his weapons.

"I'm the better fighter, remember? I didn't become your mentor for nothing."

Espio saw a glint in Valdez's eyes, one that scared him. Somehow, somewhere, he had lost it. Valdez was either insane right now, or pretty close to it. Sadness welled up inside of him as he realized what he was going to have to do. He prepared himself, and lunged toward Valdez, hoping that somewhere, the old Valdez would see sense.

* * *

><p><strong>And that's the end of this chapter. I hope all of you guys were able to get through the chapter without much confusion. I feel like this is one of my better chapters, and I would love to see feedback on this chapter. Thank you to all the people who have fallen in love with my stories and I hope I continue to impress all of you as the story is slowing coming to a close. Slowly. <strong>


	8. Fate is A Funny Thing

**Urghh…. Guess who spent the most of her week going over plot points to make sure everything is connected? LOL. Well, Chapter 8 everybody. The two separate storylines that have been going on so far will start to blur this chapter. I would like to take a moment to thank all the people who inspire me to write; I've been reading their fanfiction long before I wrote my own. Their names are FrDougal9000 andThe Bride of constant Vigil. Feel free to look at their awesome works of literature too. :-) They are incredible writers and wonderful people.**

* * *

><p>A loud and piercing wail echoed across the entirety of Angel Island. It caused birds to fly and people who lived on the island to clap their hands over their ears. Mighty stood in front of his cave, worry and panic setting in. Two hours after he had left to go home, he had slept for about an hour and had gotten up to find that Ray had never made it back. He had run back to where they had been sitting and had found nothing. The squirrel wasn't by the Master Emerald, wasn't in any of the usual areas. He had asked his fellow Chaotix members, but no one had seen him recently. Knuckles ran up the extremely large hill that Mighty's cave was on, panting and trying to make it to the top as fast as he could.<p>

"What….What's…..What's wrong?"

The echidna asked, trying to catch his breath. Mighty felt terrible. He hadn't stayed with Ray, he hadn't made sure he had come home. What if something terrible had happened? Ray could be lying injured somewhere, or kidnapped, or… He didn't want to go there.

"Hello? Mighty?"

Knuckles was waving his over-sized hand in the armadillo's face, making him realize that he was just standing there, staring at nothing with a scared expression.

"I can't find Ray anywhere! I… left him back in the forest, we were talking, and then… then… I don't know. He just vanished. He never came home and he's not in the area anymore. I checked and I don't know if mayb-"

"Mighty."

Knuckles said, stopping Mighty's panicked rambling in it's tracks.

"Maybe he just went for a walk? he is his own person, Mighty. He'll be back soon. You'll see."

Still, Mighty was worried, still imagining the worst.

"Knuckles, I think he ran away. Or he got kidnapped. I… I haven't been exactly the most pleasant person to talk to in the last few days, Oh my God. What have I done?! I ignored him! He'll never forgive me, oh why didn't I talk to him more?! It's all my fault and I don-"

"MIGHTY!"

Knuckles said, shaking the armadillo.

"Snap out of it!"

Mighty stopped talking and just stood there quietly, staring at Knuckles.

"Thank you."

The echidna said, sounding somewhat annoyed.

"We'll go talk to the Legionaries, see if they saw anything while they were laying around on MY island. If not, we'll just go back over every place and look again. He couldn't have gone far."

They quickly located the Legionaries, who were camping in the same spot, with Beauregard sitting right in front of the entrance next to Matilda. He didn't look too happy to see Knuckles again.

"I take it ya'll haven't found your missing team member yet."

He said, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes. Mighty could tell that Beauregard didn't think that Espio was actually missing.

"Actually, we're missing another member. Small yellow squirrel with blue eyes. Talks with a stutter?"

Knuckles asked, also crossing his arms.

Beauregard shook his head.

"Nope. Haven't seen them. Sorry. Hows the search for your other missing friend?"

Knuckles continued to talk to the rabbit about where they had looked for Espio. Mighty looked to Matilda.

"What about you? You seen any sign of him?"

She shook her head no. Mighty's face fell as he realized that Ray had practically vanished into thin air. Matilda seemed to notice his change in expression.

"You care about him?"

He nodded his head.

"Very much so. He's my brother and my friend. I don't think I could live without him, honestly."

Matilda looked at Mighty with a strange expression.

"But theres no way you could be related to him. He's a squirrel isn't he?"

Mighty smiled at her.

"We're not actually related. We were in a bad situation together and sort of connected over that. We may not be family, but I have no problem calling him my brother."

Mighty noticed that the green shelled Armadillo had a tear in her eye.

"You okay?"

He asked her kindly.

"I'm fine."

She replied in a deadpan voice.

"I just understand why you care about him. Beauregard and I went through the same thing."

Knuckles poked Mighty in the back.

"We should look around again; see if he turned up anywhere."

Mighty nodded and looked back at Matilda. There was no sign that she had even shown any sign of emotion before.

"Well, see you later."

She smiled at him for the briefest of seconds, so fast that if Mighty had blinked, he would have missed it.

"Good luck finding your friends."

She said, as she stood up and walked off. Mighty couldn't help but stare after her. She had actually talked to him! It made him extremely happy for a minute until he remembered that Ray was still missing.

He spent the next hour looking back over every single place Ray could possibly be. He ended up back next to the log he had been sitting on next to his friend. He began to search the area, looking for any signs to where Ray had gone. He looked at the ground and found faint but still visible footprints in the ground leading away from the log and toward a random spot in the bushes.

Following the footprints, Mighty noticed that they seemed to not go into a straight line, but zigzagged behind trees and other plant life. It was like Ray had been hiding from someone; maybe tailing a person? He kept following the path for as long as he could until he lost the trail in the middle of nowhere.

He looked around, but could find no other evidence to where Ray had gone. Something glinted in the sunlight through the trees, blinding Mighty for a second. He wandered in that direction, only to come out into a clearing and find a rather desolate building.

It was covered in ivy and rust, looking like no one had been there in a long time. he walked around the building, studying it, not sure whether it was safe to go inside. One of the windows was broken, leaving a good sized hole for a person to crawl through. He was about to crawl through it when he noticed a tuft of yellow fur caught in one of the remaining pieces of window.

He picked it up and studied it, automatically sure that he had found where Ray had gone. He jumped through the window, rolling into a ball as he leaped so he wouldn't injure himself on the sharp glass. Landing on the ground inside, he stood up and looked around. Everything was quiet and nothing seemed to be moving. There was a burn mark on the floor in front of him, as if some sort of ship or rocket had taken off recently. The smell of burning motor fuel was still in the air.

There was another room off to the left and Mighty looked in there too. As he walked in, he stepped on something that made a soft ting noise. He lifted his foot and found a ninja star on the ground, stained red at one end. He picked it up and recognized it as Espio's. Somewhat confused, he walked around that room as well, looking for anything to explain what had happened here. As he turned the corner into yet, another room, he saw someone's foot lying behind a shelf in the middle of the room.

He sped over to the foot and looked around the shelving unit to find a very familiar purple chameleon lying facedown in a pool of blood.

"Espio?"

He asked quietly, leaning down next to him.

"Espio?!"

He asked urgently, carefully turning Espio over to inspect the damage. A dagger was stuck into his chest, right around his heart. Mighty put his ear on his chest and listened to make sure he was still alive. There were a few more scratches on random parts of the Chameleons body, as if he had recently been in a fight.

Mighty didn't really know first aid, but he pulled the dagger out anyway, using his gloves to stop the bleeding. At the same time, he looked around for anything to patch his teammate up.

"Pocket on my glove. Left hand."

Espio spoke quietly, his eyes still closed.

"You okay, Espy?"

Mighty asked, reaching to the pocket that Espio had mentioned. In it, he found a needle and clear thread, plus a few small bandages. he wasn't sure how to use them though, and sat there for a few minutes trying to figure it out.

"Give me those."

Espio said, reaching up and grabbing the medical supplies from the Armadillo's hand. He slowly sat up, wincing in pain, and began to stitch the dagger wound up, while making sure that it didn't bleed too much.

"Hey Espio."

Mighty said, waiting while Espio put a bandage on.

"What?"

He asked, looking at Mighty.

"What are you going to do with that battery thing?"

Espio's eyes narrowed, and he looked like he was remembering something rather unpleasant.

"Because, you know, The Chaotix seem to think you're in trouble and went traitor on us again."

Mighty continued.

"And what the heck happened to Ray?"

Espio stood up and brushed the dust and dirt that had attached to him from lying on the floor.

"It's a long story."

He said slowly, like he was trying to decide just how much of that long story he should tell.

"And I don't know where Ray is. I thought he was with the Chaotix? Something happen?"

Mighty sighed. He wasn't sure if Espio was telling the truth or not. That was one of the hardest things of having a ninja as a friend. Everything they say has to be analyzed to see if it rings true.

"Well, he was here. His footprints lead right to this building and I found some of his fur caught in the window."

Espio looked confused.

"Never saw him. When do you think he was here?"

Espio began slowly walking out of the room and toward the area that Mighty had entered in.

"I don't know."

The chameleon knelt down next to the burned area of floor and felt it.

"Damn."

He said, looking upset for all of a second.

"Let's go."

Mighty was still confused as to what was going on and he knew Espio wouldn't spell it out for him.

"Are you ever going to tell me what's going on?"

Espio thought for a moment and smiled.

"It's..."

"If you say "it's a long story" again, I'm gonna hit you."

Mighty said with rising annoyance.

"...complicated."

Espio finished, pulling apart one of the doors and walking out into the sunshine.

* * *

><p>Espio was trying to think, trying to figure out how to make it to Robotropolis before it was too late. His chest felt like it was on fire, his stab wound was burning with sharp pain. He looked at it and felt ashamed of himself for letting it happen.<p>

_The first blow was exactly as Espio had expected. His Kunai struck Valdez's blade instead of Valdez himself. But the Kunai was only a distraction as Espio expertly pulled out a samurai sword and swung at Valdez's leg._

_Valdez jumped up and threw a good ten ninja stars at the same time, forcing Espio to pull of a quick back-flip to avoid them._

_Liza was standing in the background, watching the fighting, even though she was just as talented at fighting as any. Her eyes were downcast, and her expression sorrowful._

_The war was fierce and quick. Espio would attempt to land a blow and then Valdez would counterattack. Both of them seemed to be evenly matched, something that surprised Espio. It seemed that Valdez hadn't been training very much lately and was a bit out of practice._

_"Valdez!"_

_Espio shouted at his mentor, still slashing his sword, trying to land a hit._

_"This is crazy! Lets talk it out like civilized people, shall we? I don't want to hurt you!"_

_Valdez dropped his weapons and looked miat Espio with sadness._

_"Honestly, I really don't want to hurt you either."_

_The look in Valdez's eyes was genuine._

_"Look. Lets talk this out. I agree you deserve revenge on Eggman. But there are other ways to go about it. Isn't your plan just a little bit extreme?"_

_Valdez looked around the base, at all the mold and rust on the walls._

_"Yes. It is extreme."_

_Valdez lifted his hand up to scratch his shoulder and before Espio could react in time, the blue chameleon had pulled a dagger out of a hidden pocket and threw it with deadly accuracy._

_Espio felt the sharp blade plunge into his chest. He gasped and fell backwards onto the ground._

_"I really didn't want to hurt you. My way may be extreme, but compared to everything Eggman has done to people, it's a small price to pay."_

_The world was blurring around Espio as he realized he was losing blood. He could hear Liza murmur something to Valdez, who replied back to her in a harsh tone._

_Their footsteps wandered off and he heard the sound of a plane motor or ship turning on. A loud noise of taking off and then silence._

"Where are we going?"

Mighty asked, breaking Espio's thoughts.

"Robotropolis."

"What? Why are we going there?"

Espio realized that he would have to tell Mighty what was going on before the armadillo got overwhelmed.

"I'll tell you on the way."

Mighty rolled his eyes behind Espio as they went back into the forest.

"How are we going to get there? Everyone is looking for you Esp. We need a ship or something."

Espio wasn't sure at all how they were going to get to Robotropolis in time. An idea popped into his head.

"How do you feel about stealing?"

Mighty didn't really look too happy.

"I don't think its a good idea."

Espio shrugged.

"Any other brilliant ideas?"

The chameleon carefully made his way through the trees toward the Master Emerald shrine, Mighty following.

"Your clan have anything?"

Mighty asked happily, thinking he had found the perfect solution.

"You could just pop in and ask for a aircraft, right? Super secret ninja stuff they do all the time, they've got to have something."

Espio frowned and realized how difficult the next few hours would be.

"It's not that easy. My clan kind of… thinks I'm a terrorist right now."

Mighty's eyes widened in shock.

"They think you stole it too? But I thought, I thought that you stole that battery for your clan or something."

"I didn't take it. I was framed."

"Well, are you gonna try?"

Espio sighed and groaned inwardly at the prospect. They had to break into his own home, steal some unmanned, unguarded vehicle (Which was almost impossible), get it out of Dragon Kingdom before they got shot down, and then break into Eggman's fortified base to stop Valdez before the battery was used as a bomb.

"Let's go."

He said, and began to run in the direction of his clan.

"We going the right way?"

"Of course we're going the right way! You think I don't know where my clan is?"

Mighty smiled as Espio glared at him.

"Hopefully, we'll find Ray too."

"And save the world?"

Espio asked, looking back at one of the only people he could trust at that moment.

"And save the world."

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><p><strong>Okay. So this story is reaching the climax and all. I hope you all found this chapter interesting to read. XD Next chapter, we'll see how Valdez and Liza are doing. Stay tuned for it! Love all you guys. :-D<strong>


	9. Hope, Fate, and Luck

The closer the aircraft got to Robotropolis, the harder the rain seemed to fall. Lightning crackled across the sky, almost like a bad omen. Liza shuddered to herself in the back of the ship and tried to hope for the best. Valdez was still flying the ship, silent and focused on his task. The plan was to land the plane somewhere inside Robotropolis so they could infiltrate it.

Liza wasn't really sure what she was doing anymore. Valdez had promised her that he wouldn't hurt Espio. And yet, the Chameleon was lying on the cold floor of the abandoned base, his blood slowly staining the ground red. The chances of anyone finding him was extremely slim. She could only hope Espio had means of healing himself or else he might not make it. The way he had looked at her! It had been mixed with bitter disappointment and hurt that his friends were betraying him. He had looked to her for help and she had done absolutely nothing to protect him.

She was torn, her loyalties split between Valdez and Espio. One side of her was with Valdez out of friendship and loyalty and the other half of her had cared for Espio with something more than just friendship. She hadn't seen Espio in so long though. What if he had changed? Espio probably wasn't the same person she had remembered, he had seemed more serious than he used to be. Then it struck her;she wasn't exactly the same person either. Back then, she would have sacrificed everything to help him. and yet, she had just turned her back on him.

"We're almost there."

Valdez called back, sounding like he couldn't be happier. His plan was coming together after all. liza looked out the front window and saw Robotropolis in all of its "glory" below. Industrial smoke, robots swarming the area, metallic grey buildings; it was terrible. There wasn't a single tree,bush, or living creature in sight.

"HALT"

A voice came over the radio of the aircraft. Green lasers were shot from a small building on the ground and began scanning the ship. Liza wasn't sure what they were going to do, but Valdez stood up and went over to a pile of boxes in the back of the ship. He started opening random ones, throwing the lid over his shoulder as searched through their contents.

"No…...No…...No…. Ah! there it is!"

He pulled out the top half of a old Eggman robot. He stuck it on a box and put it in the driver's seat.

"SHIP NUMBER 3988, EGGPAWN NUMBER 56009. CONTINUE TO LOADING BASE 3"

The lasers shut off. Valdez pulled the robot off and sat back in the drivers seat.

"I can't believe that actually worked."

he said, sounding amazed and a little pleased. Liza sat down next to him.

"Me neither. Eggman's security must not be as tight as we thought it was."

Valdez maneuvered the aircraft into the loading base and smoothly landed it. It was immediately surrounded by were all pointing their laser guns at the ship, completely surrounding them on all sides.

"Actually, maybe it didn't work."

Valdez frowned, looking at all the robots around them.

"Oh well! Let's go, Liza! Adventure awaits!"

He slowly faded into invisibility and waited while Liza did the same. The he opened the door and walked out. The robots were looking at the ship in confusion; for no one was coming out of the open door. Valdez walked in between them and continued off into the base, leaving Liza to almost run after him. he was zipping through hallways and looking at doorways, trying to find a very specific room.

One of the doors they passed was open and Liza couldn't help but look inside as they hurried past. Giant containment units filled to the brim with toxic green slime were placed around the room. Warning labels were posted all over them about the dangers of overheating and explosions. The robots working in there were bigger and looked almost indestructible. Liza imagined what would happen if they actually succeeded in their plan to blow up Robotropolis. What would happen to chemicals like this? They wouldn't just disappear into thin air. If that stuff got into a river, or leaked into the ground, there would be major problems for Mobians everywhere.

Alarms started going off, causing Valdez to stop in his tracks.

"We're still invisible. They can't find us."

He said, more to himself than to Liza. They kept going, walking through the maze of rooms until they made it to a control center of sorts. Robots were running around, checking screens and Eggman was standing in the middle of it cursing.

"Blast it all! Someone's here! Find them! Find them!"

The robots rushed around even faster as Eggman walked past the two chameleons, not even noticing their presence. They waited until the doctor turned the corner before they went into the control room. Valdez pulled out a small screwdriver and snuck around to the back of one of the main computers that controlled the base.

Liza pulled out a couple of her ninja stars and quickly struck each and every robot in the room in the head. They sparked and crashed to the ground. She then pushed the robots and stacked them up in front of the door, interlocking parts to make a blockade.

"LOCKDOWN INITIATED"

Liza turned to see Valdez pulling out wires and attaching them to the battery.

"The lockdown should keep everyone out of here. I put a bug in the system so the robots should shut down in ten minutes."

Liza sat down and watched as he worked. They had made it a lot farther than she thought they would. Valdez had never really explained the next phases of the plan, like how they were going to get out of there before the bomb goes off. She knew it was going to be a huge explosion, so they needed at least a two hour head start to get out of there.

"Valdez?"

He paused his work on the bomb briefly.

"Hmm?"

"How are we going to get out of here?"

Valdez resumed his work, looking everywhere but at her.

"We're not."

He said grimly, wiring the last cord into the battery.

"What?"

Liza said, confused. They weren't going to leave before the bomb went off? He was going to let both of them die? An image of a martyr flashed through her mind as she realized what he must be thinking. He wanted to die for a cause, wanted to go out with a bang; literally. He would take out as most of Robotropolis as he could, maybe even all of it down with him. She didn't have that same desire. She was willing to help Valdez, but she was not willing to die for something she didn't support. Another image of Espio went through her head. If he was dead, she would only have herself to blame.

"Liza? Are you okay?"

He asked, puzzled by her reaction. Liza looked around, realizing that all exits were blocked off. SHe could try to make a break for it now, at least get of Robotropolis. She would take the ship again and get out of there. Then she would find Espio, and make sure he was alive. She began to pull apart the wall of robots she had placed there earlier.

"What are you doing?"

Valdez asked harshly, standing up and running toward her. She got all the robots down and tried to open the door but Valdez got to her first, knocking her to the ground.

"You can't leave!"

He continued, trying to drag her back away from the door.

"You promised to help me."

She was able to free on of her hands and used it to slap Valdez across the face.

"You promised you wouldn't hurt Espio."

Valdez's eyes went dark with anger.

"That was necessary. He was going to ruin everything. Besides, I didn't see you try to stop me. Why the sudden change of heart?"

She made another pointless attempt to break free from him and escape. He held on to her with a fierce grip and pulled her in the opposite direction. She tried to wrestle out of his grip but found it to be next to impossible.

"I'm sorry."

She whispered quietly. Her eyes began to fill up with tears as she realized she would never get out of this situation. She had let Espio get injured, left him to die, gone along with an insane plan, ignored Valdez's possible mental problems, and couldn't even find a way to fix any of it. She let herself go limp in defeat. Valdez threw her onto the ground and stood over her, still looking like a half-crazed, bloodthirsty madman. He pulled out a dagger and held it over her menacingly.

"I can't believe you would force me to do this."

He said, his voice choked with rage.

Liza tried to move away from him again, but he swung the dagger down into her leg before she could get very far. He dug it in, right at her quickly did the same to the other leg. She could only lie there in her pain and agony. He stood up again, cleaning the dagger on his glove.

"You won't be able to go anywhere now. You won't die, at least, not until the whole place goes boom."

He turned around and left her there, going back to finish the latch touches on his makeshift bomb.

Her tears became a river and she cried, sobbing uncontrollably. There was no hope. There was nothing left to do but imagine what life could have been like. What could have been, if only she had been smarter, braver, something.

"There!"

He said, smiling broadly as he lifted the battery up.

"It's finished."

* * *

><p>Thinking it over, Ray realized that the box was the worst hiding spot he could have hid in. At first, he had been relieved that no one had found him. He tried to leave the box multiple times, but every time he opened it, one of the two chameleons was always in sight, working on something. A couple hours later, or so Ray thought, he could hear Espio's voice. He was too far away to pick up on anything they were saying but eventually the talking turned into fighting. Footsteps boarded the ship and he heard the door close. He peeked through a crack in the box and noticed the two chameleons flipping switches and getting the aircraft started.<p>

Espio was nowhere to be found. Fear struck the squirrel as he realized the implications of that. He had no idea who these two in the ship were, Espio could be hurt or injured, and Ray was trapped five feet away from these chameleons.

Fortunately, no one came near him. His hiding spot stayed hidden, even if it was stupid. He spent the next couple of hours curled up inside the box, trying not to breathe too loudly or move around too much. The chameleons didn't talk very much during the trip.

"We're almost there."

He heard the blue chameleon call out to his partner. Ray stretched out as best as he could in a small enclosed space.

"HALT"

Ray almost jumped in surprise at the loud robotic voice. He heard footsteps approach where he was. The box next to him was opened and he could hear someone rustling through it. He held his breath in fear, hoping that he wouldn't be found.

He tried to think of something else, to distract himself from the possibilities of being found. Mighty must have realized he was missing by now, right? He's probably up on Angel Island, searching. Ray didn't want to be here, stuck in a box. He wished he could have just found Espio and had gotten out of there. Mighty would have been appreciative that Ray was able to locate Espio all by himself. That probably wasn't going to happen now. He had no idea where they were and had no clue what was going to happen.

"Let's go Liza! Adventure awaits!"

The blue chameleon shouted, breaking Ray's thoughts. Ray listened as the two of them walked off the ship. he waited there, trying to make sure they were gone. He pushed the lid off and climbed out of the box. The ship was empty and the door was still open. Ray peeked around the corner and almost fell out the open door in shock. A good three hundred robots stood outside, their weapons armed and pointed at the ship.

"COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP."

Ray searched the ship with his eyes, looking for any means of escape. He had no idea how to fly an aircraft and there was nothing but empty boxes and seats.

"W-W-W-What am I g-g-g-g-going to d-d-d-d-d-d-d-do?"

He stuttered out, his voice breaking with his rising panic.

"YOU HAVE FIVE SECONDS BEFORE WE ELIMINATE YOUR VESSEL"

Ray had no options and no plans. He was somewhat sure that he was in Robotropolis or some other Eggman base; the robots and the general metal atmosphere hinted at that. The only thing he could really do was surrender.

"TWO SECONDS"

He turned and walked out of the aircraft with his hands above his head, praying that no one would shoot him. They surrounded him, giving him no chance to run.

"COME WITH US."

They marched him down a hallway, in a tight circle. Ray looked up and down the hallway, still trying to find some way out. There was a grate on the side of the wall, screwed shut. In all of about three seconds, Ray came up with a quick and completely stupid escape plan. He ducked down and ran between the legs of the robots and ran ahead of them to get to the grate. Every robot lifted one of their metallic arms and shot a laser directly at Ray.

He ducked, still getting singed by the heat of the lasers. The grate cover behind him exploded, shooting metal fragments everywhere. As the young squirrel leaped into the open grate of the vent, his jacket caught fire. He yanked it off and threw it as he crawled through the small vents.

Alarms immediately rang out, deafening Ray as he continued to crawl. It was dark and he had no idea where he was going. He went along for a few minutes when only the sound of his amplified breath and his beating heart. Eventually, he came to another grate and he happily pushed it open and got out. He was in a completely different hallway, but this one seemed to be empty. He slowly walked down the hallway, hoping nobody would see him there. A door slammed behind him and the squirrel froze in place. He turned around only to find himself staring straight into the face of Eggman himself.

The large mustached man looked down on Ray, causing the squirrel to shake with fear.

"I see our intruder has made it pretty far into my base. I wasn't expecting a squirrel though."

Ray's feet moved of their own accord and Ray took off running as fast as he could. Behind him, another large group of robots plus Eggman himself, who was riding on a flying robot came after Ray, shooting even more lasers than before. He felt his fur burning and could feel one of his legs get hit, but adrenaline kept him on his feet. All of the sudden, the lights surged and the power went out. Ray could hear a giant crashing noise, like something was falling. The lights came on a few minutes later to show that every robot that had been chasing Ray had collapsed, no longer online. Eggman was buried under them and only his long arm was visible.

"Come over here and help me!"

The fat man cried out, his hand reaching out toward Ray. Ray did what any logical person in his position would do; he ran off, not wishing to help the guy that tried to kill him. He just wanted to get out of there, just wanted to get back to Angel Island, where home was. His leg still hurt immensely, and he tried his best to ignore it. He didn't even want to know what kind of damage had been done to it. As he walked, the sound of a woman crying reached his ears. He stopped and kept listening. It was coming from the wall next to him and he leaned to the wall.

He wasn't imagining it. There was actually someone crying in the next room. He wandered along the wall until he reached what he thought was the door to the room. He tried to push it open, but something was blocking the doorway.

"It's finished."

He heard, this voice male. It must be those Chameleons! Ray realized. He pushed on the door even harder, trying to get in somehow.

"In under an hour, this battery will explode. Robotropolis will be gone; no remaining fragment of Eggman left. In under one hour, I will finally have had revenge for myself."

A bomb?! Ray backed away from the door, realizing what that meant. There was no way he could escape the entirety of Eggman's empire before it went off. He was going to die; all because he had wanted Mighty to care about him more. He sunk against the wall, and hugged himself, terrified and completely alone. There was no one there to comfort him, no one there to give him any advice on what to do. He looked up toward where the sky should have been and cried. A glint of metal caught his eye. He looked up at the ceiling to see yet another grate. There were apparently a very large air conditioning system here. He ran back to where the robots were all lying and dragged one of them back toward the door. It was surprisingly not as heavy as he thought it would be. He aimed one of the arms of the robots up and shot the grate off with its laser. He then climbed on top of the robot and jumped up to catch the ledge. He pulled himself up, and silently crawled through the metal tunnels.

He couldn't believe that he could even come up with something as ingenious as this. He normally was just the sidekick, the background Chaotix member who was usually not the best fighter and was back-up. And yet here he was, in the heart of Eggman's base, still alive and still fighting. If only Mighty could be here to see him!

He found the grate that led to the room with the two chameleons in it. He had no idea what he was going to do, exactly, except try to stop the bomb from going off. He looked through the holes in the grate and looked into the room. The pink chameleon was lying on ground in a pool of blood and the blue one was pressing things on what was most likely the bomb. He tensed up and pushed the grate open. Somehow, someway, he would stop the bomb before it went off. He would make it somehow, and would find his way back to Mighty and to the Chaotix. This was his chance to prove himself, to be a hero!

* * *

><p>Hey guys! My spring break is next week and I'm going to Nashville, Tennessee for my Spring Break. I won't be able to access the internet, so I won't be working on writing for a while. I'm not sure how long it will be until my next chapter will be out, so enjoy this in the meantime. :-)<p> 


	10. Beneath the Earth

"What do you think?"

Espio asked sarcastically, a slight smile played across his face. Mighty looked down upon on what Espio had told him was the entrance to the clan. There was nothing down there, except one of the largest rocks Mighty had ever seen. He glanced from the rock to Espio and then back to the rock.

"That's… it?"

He said, somewhat disappointed by what he saw. After Espio had explained to him what was going on (Even though Mighty had interrupted him countless times to ask pointless questions), they had reached Dragon Kingdom. He hadn't seen any of the beauty that he would expect from what little Espio had talked about it. The ninja sensed his disappointment and laughed at him.

"Of course not. You thought you were going to see the entire Shinobi hanging around outside? Most everything is underground."

Well, that cleared things up. Mighty looked down at the ground and tried to imagine an entire clan of chameleons burrowing through dirt to get to different places. The image was so strange and unrealistic that Mighty accidently let a chuckle escape. Espio hadn't seemed to have heard, he was staring down at the rock with a focused and annoyed stare.

"We're going to have to go the back way."

Mighty followed his stare and only saw rock, rock, and more rock.

"Why? What's the matter?"

Espio made a face at him, and looked back down at the rock.

"I shouldn't have brought you."

He said simply, turning and going back down the hill in the direction they had come in.

"What? What did I do?"

"It's not you. Not really. Most everything about the Clan is hidden and most things are invisible. Every single person within is a chameleon, so you would stick out like a Chaos Emerald among pebbles."

Espio paused at the bottom of the hill.

"There's a guard on watch right now. Going through the main entrance will be impossible. Luckily for us, I know of a secret entrance."

He sat down and was reaching for something on the ground when he realized Mighty was still standing there.

"Close your eyes."

"Why?"

"Do it, or I will do it for you."

Mighty obliged and shut his eyes. He could hear a loud scraping sound and the sound of Epsio pushing something heavy out of the way. A click noise and then silence.

"Okay, walk forward a few feet."

Feeling rather stupid, Mighty walked forward, holding one of his arms out so he wouldn't crash into anything.

"Okay. you're good."

Mighty opened his eyes and found himself in pitch black darkness. They were now underground, as far as he could tell, in some sort of tunnel system. Espio lit a match, drawing Mighty's eyes to the only source of light. Shuffling in the small space, Espio grabbed hold of a lamp and lit it with the match.

"I thought you were claustrophobic."

Mighty pointed out, staring at the small tunnel that led onward into the darkness. Dust covered the stone floor and with the thick dust, footprints.

"I am."

Leaving it at that, Espio led the way, going through the tunnels with a sense of knowledge; indicating that he had been down here before.

"Is this guarded? I mean, I don't think the Shinobi would leave an entire tunnel system completely abandoned."

"You're right. They wouldn't. Only four people know this exists, one of them being me. It should lead right into one of the main corridors of the Clan. From there, we can access my mother's room. She'll have the ability to get us all the way to the area where we keep the aircrafts."

Espio's explanation just gave Mighty a million questions. He decided to ask the one that surprised him the most.

"Wait… Your MOTHER? You have a family? You never mentioned anything like that."

Espio froze, his eyes widening.

"Did I say that? I meant Mentor. My Mentor's room. Sorry."

Mighty wasn't stupid, and it was obvious that Espio had actually meant "mother" the first time around. He was actually kind of upset about it, although he didn't really have much of a reason to be. He had thought that Espio was an orphan, like he was. The Chameleon had never really talked about having a family, and the whole "Espio being part of a clan" thing was actually quite recent. Most of the Chaotix didn't have family, or didn't have the ability to visit them.

They spent the next several minutes in silence. Mighty decided to change the subject and ask the next question he had.

"Who's the other three people who know about the tunnels?"

Apparently, he had struck another nerve, because Espio didn't answer.

"We've reached the end. Stay absolutely silent."

They were at a dead end. Espio lifted up the lamp and blew it out. They were once again in darkness. He watched as a crack of light appeared in front of him. Espio grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the crack of light. They both tumbled out of the secret door and hit the ground hard. Espio had landed on his feet, but Mighty hadn't been so lucky. His nose hurt like heck from bashing it against the floor.

Pushing the door closed, Espio looked up and down the hallway they were now in. Mighty stood up and looked around. The door they had come out of was nonexistent now, only a part of the wall. The hallway they were in was much bigger and nicer than the tunnels they had just come out of, brilliantly lit by many torches along the walls. The sound of laughter came from down the hall and footsteps could be heard coming toward them.

"Come on."

Espio whispered, walking in the opposite direction of the people coming toward them. Mighty was entranced by the halls they were walking down.

"How big is your clan?"

He asked, staring in wonder at the endless line of torches that stretched out before them, breaking into multiple pathways, with handcrafted wooden doors along the way.

"Be quiet!"

Espio whispered to him, his gold eyes flashing angrily in the torchlight.

"You want us to get caught? We're in the heart of a ninja clan. You will be tortured and killed if they catch you. No one; I repeat, NO ONE is supposed to know this place exists."

Mighty looked behind him, half expecting a troupe of angry ninjas to jump out at them. Thankfully, nothing like that happened, and they turned and twisted down the hallways; until they reached a large and elegantly carved door with two guards standing watch.

"Let me guess."

Mighty said, eyeing the two chameleons keeping watch warily.

"That's your mentor's room."

Espio nodded, pulling out a couple of his ninja stars.

"Go cause a distraction."

"Me? I thought you just said that I would be killed and tortured! You want me to to just walk out there in front of the guards and wave or something?!"

"Don't worry. I've got your back."

Not feeling any better, Mighty walked in front of them. Both chameleons stared at him with wide open mouths, their eyes almost popping out of their sockets. Apparently the sight of Mighty was an extreme shock to them.

"Can one of you tell me where the bathroom is?"

Mighty said, smiling at the pair of them.

"I think I'm lost."

Both guards snapped out of their shocked stare and immediately pulled out long, slim swords. Mighty back away from them, not wanting to be within slicing distance. Both chameleons shimmered and then vanished. Mighty tensed up, realizing that the other two had the upper advantage on him as long as they stayed invisible.

He heard someone cry out, and then silence. Espio appeared in front of him, scaring the heck out of the poor armadillo. He instinctively lashed out with his fist and punched Espio straight into the wall. Espio hit the wall hard and slid down to the ground.

"Kuso…"

Espio muttered as he lay on the floor. Mighty leaned over him, completely mortified.

"Espio? Are you okay? Espio?"

The chameleon grabbed Mighty's shoulder and pulled himself up, his free hand covering the place where he had gotten stabbed. Mighty looked down at it and in horror saw that it was bleeding again.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I thought you were…."

His words trailed off as he saw Espio's expression. Voices could be heard shouting from down the hall. Espio opened the door that was now unguarded and pushed Mighty in there. The room he ended up in was large and well furnished.

Mighty had never seen any sort of Dragon Kingdom styled home, but he was sure that they were all pretty close to what he saw now. A short table sat in the middle of the room, surrounded by bright green pillows. Paintings hung from the wall, done in thick black ink on thin paper. The room was heavily perfumed, the smell of burning incense clogged the air.

"Espio?"

A woman's voice called out, her voice high and flute like. Mighty watched as another chameleon slowly came to view in front of them. She was as purple as Espio was, with the same color of eye. Instead of one horn though, she had four; two of them were decorated with ornaments. She wore a green silk outfit with a bright red sash around the middle. (A kimono? Mighty wasn't sure)

Beside him, Espio had gotten down to his knees and was bowing to the older chameleon.

"What are you doing here?"

She asked, her voice caught in a tone of panic.

"You're still in danger. Coming back here was the stupidest thing you've ever done."

"I need a ship."

Espio said, slowly getting up from the ground. His wound was no longer bleeding, but it didn't look all that well. The female ninja must have seen it too.

"You're hurt."

She said, worry crossing her features.

"The least I can do is cause a distraction. I'll call a meeting together to discuss a few pointless things. That will give you completely clear hallways at the least. The hangar will be well guarded however, so be careful."

It was then that she realized that Espio was not alone.

"You brought someone down here?!"

Mighty flinched away from her infuriated gaze. There was no doubt about it, she was definitely Espio's mother. Only someone related to Espio could replicate that angry glare.

"He's not a threat. This is Mighty, one of the Chaotix members."

She still didn't look happy, but she was no longer glaring in Mighty's direction.

"I hope you plan on explaining every single event that's happened to you when you get back."

Espio nodded and did a short bow.

"Of course."

A loud knock came from the door.

"My Bride, are you okay in there?"

Mighty glanced at the door. Someone must have found the unconscious guards outside. Espio pointed toward the screen in the corner, and they both squeezed back behind it. They knelt down on the ground and waited, hoping not to be found.

* * *

><p>Espio closed his eyes and listened. His mother opened the door in her usual way, which meant that the person outside probably had to jump back in fear of being struck by the door.<p>

"I'm fine. Why? Has something happened?"

"Your guards were found unconscious. Is someone in your room right now?"

"No."

She answered innocently, sounding genuinely surprised that her own guards had been hurt.

"Have they woken up yet?"

"No, my Bride."

"Take me to them."

She walked out the door and then came back in a second later.

"Let me grab my shoes first."

She approached the back of the room and picked up her shoes.

"Three minutes."

She whispered, and then she was gone. The door closed behind her with a final click. Mighty got up from behind the screen and went into the larger part of the room. Espio followed, scanning the room and double checking that they were alone.

"Three minutes until what?"

Mighty asked, oblivious. Espio forgot how little he knew about the clan. He had never had to explain anything to an outsider before and now found himself fumbling for words. He didn't want to say something that would tell too much of his clan life.

"Until she calls a meeting."

He finally said. Three minutes; three minutes until they would be found and killed. Well, Mighty would be killed. Espio wasn't sure what would happen to him.

"Let's go."

He opened the door again and looked out. The hallways were empty, as he knew they would be. Three minutes, and then they would be full of ninjas, both young and old as the training for the day ended. He went out, closely followed by Mighty. Together, they went down the halls; going a fast enough pace to cause the torches' flames to wiggle as they passed by.

"Why are we going so fast?"

How many questions did that armadillo have? It seemed that everything he had to say so far was a question.

"So we can get there faster."

Two minutes. Espio quickened his pace, rushing past all the rooms he had grown up in. The Fighting room, the weapons room, the calligraphy room, etc. It all passed by in a blur as they went left, and then right, and then left again. He felt a pang of sadness as he ran, his eyes seeing his life and his passion; from an outsiders point of view. he was going to stop Valdez, and prove his innocence, just so he could return home.

He wondered what Liza would think of the clan if she were here. It had grown dramatically in size over the years to fit their growing number of ninjas and need of materials and weapons. It would be very different from the clan she had grown up in.

One minute. Espio screeched to a halt next to the door he wanted, causing Mighty to stumble as he tried to stop too. His chest felt like it was on fire. He looked down and saw fresh blood, again. Great, that was just what he needed. Running all that distance had not done him any good and now he was paying for it. He coughed, his throat clogging up.

"Are you okay?"

Mighty asked, watching his friend with worried blue eyes. He continued to cough until the stuff in throat finally came up.

"You're coughing up blood."

Mighty said slowly, his eyes wide with panic. Espio put a hand on his wound and felt it again. He wasn't quite sure what had been hit, but something was seriously wrong. A loud shout rang from behind them. They were out of time. Espio turned and saw a good ten ninjas running toward them, their weapons at the ready.

"Through the door!"

Normally the hangar was locked, but on this occasion it wasn't. Espio supposed he had his mother to thank for that. They rushed through it and both fell face first down the flight of stairs that Espio had forgotten about. They tumbled downward and landed hard on the ground. A ninja star flew past Espio's face and hit the ground, creating a few sparks. They both got to their feet and began to run again as various weapons went flying through the air at them.

"Ow!"

Espio looked back to make sure Mighty was okay. A dagger had scratched his face, leaving a thin trail of blood. He turned back and kept running, going through the maze of aircrafts and planes, trying not to get hit.

"Espio?"

He stopped and looked back. Mighty was staring in a completely random direction, holding his hands out in front of him.

"I can't see."

The dagger must have had some sort of poison on it. It would be a good twenty minutes before Mighty's eyes would work properly. By that time, they were surrounded. Espio pulled out one of his swords and counted the number of ninjas. There were fifteen and all were capable fighters. He could take on at least five at a time, but he was pretty sure they were going to all just attack at once. He also still had that injury, making his chances of survival less than twenty percent.

Beside him, Mighty fell over, having tripped over a fuel canister that had rolled out in front of him. He shot his arms out like windmills to prevent the fall, but it was too late. He crashed into one of the planes sitting there, a Falcon Blazer. The plane rocked backwards and tipped on it's side, fuel spilling all over the floor. There was no way that it would ever fly again. The surrounding ninja's took that opportunity to lunge at Espio, prepared to take them both out. Espio threw a group of ninja stars back in defence, sparks shooting off as the metal clashed mid-air.

Somehow, one of those sparks must have touched the fuel on the ground, for a giant fireball exploded, knocking everyone in the surrounding area off their feet. The entire ground rumbled with the force, leaving Espio to wonder if the clan was collapsing. He sat up and saw a complete disaster zone. Three other aircrafts had caught fire and at least five of his clanmates were lying on the ground, fire swelling up around them.

He found Mighty pretty close to the plane he had fallen on, still rubbing his eyes to try to see. Espio pulled him up by his arm and raced away from the explosion. The plane he wanted was near the end of the line, a sleek and fast black aircraft, fittingly named Tiger Strike. The entire clan would be alerted to their presence now and there was nothing he could do about it.

Without looking back, he jumped into the pilot's seat, his fingers running across the buttons to turn it on.

"A little help please?"

Espio looked down to see Mighty squinting to try and see the plane.

"I can kinda see it now."

"It's not permanent."

Espio helped Mighty into the co-pilot's seat, and then turned back to the control panel. He flipped several switches and then put a headset on.

"Wait a minute."

Mighty said suddenly, his hand gripping the armrest as tightly as he could without breaking it.

"If we're underground, then how are we going to fly…?"

In response, Espio turned the last crank forward and the aircraft shot forward, throwing the two back into their seats. This whole hangar was a new concept to the Shinobi, an effort to get with the times and have more advanced technology to use in case of extreme emergencies. the major problem with stuff like this was that it made it easier for outside forces to locate the clan. As a result, a six hundred mile long tunnel was built so that aircrafts that came from the Shinobi would be coming out the other end of the tunnel; leading others to believe the clan was nearby. The only major problem with it seemed to be that as the planes traveled underground, minor earthquakes would happen above.

They were traveling through that tunnel now, and would be for the next thirty minutes.

"How often do you fly?"

Mighty asked, still squinting a little from the after effects of the poison.

"Rarely."

Espio admitted.

"Okay… So are you able to fly this thing well enough to get us to Robotropolis?"

It was a good question, one that Espio didn't have much of a positive answer for. So he switched topics.

"You ask too many questions."

Mighty smiled at that, looking rather embarrassed.

"Sorry bout that. I'm just curious, that's all. I like traveling to different places, remember? Sorry if I'm poking too much into top secret information or whatever."

"You're fine."

Espio said, somewhat surprised by his apology. The aircraft continued to fly, leaving the clan he loved so dearly behind. He knew that no matter what happened, he would find a way, some way to return.


	11. Crash Landing

**Hey Everyone, Silena here. Thank you all for your patience. All the way back in June, I hit a bit of a wall in my writing. To help, I decided to take the summer off. The second school started back up, I was right back at it. I apologize for the wait and I hope by now you haven't all forgotten what's going on in the story so far. (Wouldn't blame you though; it's been a while) It also turns out that my best writing comes when I'm supposed to be doing other things. Like my essay. That I promptly ignored for the sake of this chapter. *Ahem* I'm gonna pretend like I didn't just say that. So enjoy the chapter guys! Hopefully the next one won't be as long as this one.**

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><p>It took a while, but Mighty's eyesight did eventually clear up. He rubbed them a few more times, just to be sure that his vision was back for good. They were no longer underground and were flying extremely high up from the ground. The only thing he could see outside the windows of the plane was the color white; probably from clouds.<p>

Espio sat next to him, his hands gripping the wheel of the aircraft as tightly as possible. He stared straight ahead; even though at this point there was nothing to really see.

"ummmm… Should we be this high off the ground?"

He didn't know much about flying, but he figured flying blind through the clouds was not the best approach. Suddenly he felt bad for coming along with Espio. He hadn't really been much of a help and had only hassled Espio with an overwhelming amount of questions. He had even punched the poor guy, for Mobius's sake! Granted, it had been an accident, but he doubted Espio had forgotten about it.

"It's just until we get over Dragon Kingdom. We run the risk of being shot down if we're too low."

Mighty began to have the feeling that maybe Espio was just a little bit paranoid about the whole scenario. This was the millionth time the chameleon had done an action that was strange or cautious to avoid being 'killed' by insert dangerous thing here. Either the Dragon Kingdom was the most highly defensive place in Mobius, or Espio was way over thinking the possible dangers.

On the other hand, he did trust Espio. This was his region, his people. He knew how things worked and knew what could and might happen. Not once on their trip to the Dragon Kingdom had Mighty felt totally anxious or overly worried.

He wasn't sure why he felt so calm though. Ray was still missing, and a whole array of possible explanations to what had happened to him left Mighty with a bad feeling in his gut. He had tracked him to the abandoned base, but there was nothing else but the burned area where a ship had once been to suggest to where the squirrel had gone. If he helped Espio take down Valdez, and Ray wasn't there, he wasn't sure what he was going to do. Finding Espio and having to break into the Shinobi Clan had distracted him momentarily from looking for Ray. Right then and there, he made a promise that that wouldn't happen again. He would find Ray, and he would apologize for the way he had treated his friend.

Espio looked over at him briefly and then turned back.

"Out of questions already?"

The chameleon asked sarcastically, a small smile forming on his face. Mighty noticed he was still pretty tense though.

"Just thinking. Wondering if we'll find Ray at all."

Espio shrugged.

"I'm sure you'll find him. Whether he's there or not. Even if he isn't there, I know you. You'll put every last bit of energy you have into locating him. Even if it means you have to tear apart the world."

Mighty frowned at him but unfortunately, it was would do anything and everything to find Ray and make sure he was okay.

"Thanks Espy."

There was another long period of silence. Eventually, Espio pulled the plane down and out of the clouds, so that they could now see the landscape below them.

"How long have you known Valdez and Liza?"

Mighty asked, hoping that Espio would not be mad at him for asking about them. Espio had explained the situation, but Mighty had no idea who these people were; or what they meant to his friend. He had just rapidly explained that he had been framed and that they had to go after the two people who had done it.

As Mighty had expected, it took a while for Espio to answer him.

"They were friends of mine."

Another long period of silence passed. Mighty wasn't sure if he should let the subject drop or try to pry bits and pieces out of his friend. Thankfully, Espio took care of that problem for him by finally saying something more.

"Valdez…he...well, he was my mentor. He did his best to raise me and train me right. And he was also my friend. He was sarcastic, witty, and always had the right thing to say at the right times. He could be a bit tough though, and a bit aggressive when you provoked him. He taught me basically everything I know. But, he ended up getting captured by Eggman forces and robotized. After that…he was, different. He wasn't the same as the other robotized people either. His memories were still there, but they had been twisted. He ended up having Liza robotized; believing she and I were against him. I… ended up having to…"

This was the first time Mighty had ever seen some real emotion out of Espio. The poor guy looked like he was having trouble recalling these events.

"And Liza?"

"She's just a friend of mine. We grew up together."

All of the sudden the aircraft started making loud obnoxious beeping noises.

Mighty looked over on Espio's side to locate the sound. A small red button was on the side of the controls, blinking furiously and loud.

"Ummmmmmm…. What is it doing?"

He asked. When it came to technology, he was about as knowledgeable as a rock.

The part that scared him somewhat was that Espio was looking at the blinking light with as much comprehension as he was.

"Please, tell me you know what that is."

Espio said nothing.

"You know what you're doing, right?"

Espio gave me a sheepish smile.

"Sort of?"

That was not the answer Mighty wanted to hear. He looked out the window of the plane to try and get an idea of how high they were. While the two of them had been talking, the aircraft had moved below the cloud line and he could now see the ground below. Tall metal buildings with smoke coming out the top were visible in the distance.

"Well, whatever the problem is, Robotropolis is just over there so we should be perfectly fine."

Right as he said that, the aircraft made a sputtering noise and stopped working completely. The nose of the plane tipped down and they were suddenly falling.

"What's going on?!"

Mighty yelled at Espio, watching in horror as the ground got closer and closer.

Espio's lips were moving in response but Mighty couldn't hear a thing. He looked out the window and suddenly noticed that they were much closer to those metal buildings. In fact, it looked like they were going to crash right into them. He closed his eyes and said a quick prayer to whoever was listening. Paralyzed by fear, he could only sit there with his eyes closed and teeth clenched and hope that he wouldn't die.

Something hit the plane, causing to spin wildly in it's decent back to earth. Another force hit the plane and Mighty could hear a slow cracking noise. His eyes flew open to see that both wings of the plane were completely missing. Something down on the ground was shooting up at the aircraft as it fell. Falling to their death AND getting shot at? This was getting better and better.

The last thing he saw was the plane crash through the metallic walls of Robotropolis before he was thrown forward in his seat and everything went fuzzy and faded into blackness.

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><p>Espio opened his eyes and found himself lying face down on the ground. His head ached and his chest felt like he had rolled around in burning sulfur. He was lying in a pool of blood that looked suspiciously like his own. He must have hurt that stupid stab wound again. At this rate, it was never going to heal right.<p>

"Espio?"

It was Mighty, and he sounded worried. He lifted his head up to look at the armadillo, who had knelt down next to him to see if he was okay.

"I'm fine."

He said, feeling a stab of pain in his chest as he said that. He winced slightly, his hand automatically covering his injury. Mighty looked unconvinced.

"Yes, you're the epitome of "fine."

He said sarcastically.

"What happened anyway? What went wrong with the plane?"

Espio thought back to the crash.

"I think we were out of fuel."

"You think!? Remind me to never get into another plane with you as long as I live."

"Duly noted."

Espio replied, slowly standing up. His chest still felt like it was on fire, but as long as he concentrated on other things, he was able to ignore the pain. Once he was standing, he took his time in looking around.

They were definitely in Eggman's base, but there were several things wrong with that fact. There were no robots anywhere; not a single one. The lights were pretty dim, and not one alarm had gone off when they had crashed. In fact, it was eerily quiet.

"What happened here?"

He asked, looking over at Mighty. The armadillo didn't look like he had gotten seriously hurt, except for a few bruises here and there. The ship they flown was an utter wreckage in the background, smoking and sparking occasionally.

"No idea. It's pretty quiet for Eggy's place, isn't it? Let's go find out, shall we?"

They started walking. Once they had gotten out of that main room, and into a hallway, they were able to walk around and explore.

Walking hurt with every step, but Espio didn't complain or make a sound. They had more important things to worry about, like where Valdez and Liza had gotten to.

They had been walking for while when Mighty made a sudden gasping noise. Espio followed his eyes and saw a light blue jacket lying on the ground, scorched in some areas. Mighty ran over and picked the jacket up, his hands shaking.

Espio closed his eyes and sighed. That was Ray's jacket, or rather, what was left of it. It was all the proof they needed. Somehow, the squirrel had gotten here as well. The absence of Ray was pretty worrisome though. Mighty hugged the jacket close to him looked around, as if he expected to find Ray sitting in the hallway. Espio looked past where the jacket had been found to see a very hopeful sight. He tapped Mighty on the shoulder and pointed.

There was an open vent, the grate to it blown off, as if someone had been shooting at it.

"It's just big enough for him to fit."

Espio said, bending over to study the opening. The inside was mostly dusty, except for clear patches that made a path down deeper into the vent. Espio looked carefully at them. It was almost like someone had been crawling on their hands and knees through the vent.

"It's okay Mighty, I'm pretty sure he went down this vent. He made it this far without getting hurt."

Mighty nodded, but his expression was still one of doubt and worry. Mighty would not believe that Ray was okay until he saw the squirrel with his own eyes, Espio knew. He glanced at the vent again. There was no way that either of them would fit through the vent unless….

"Mighty, you think you could fit?"

He asked, turning toward the armadillo. Mighty looked into the vent then back at Espio. He was grinning.

"Of course!"

Espio felt like he was playing bowling. With an extremely heavy bowling ball that just happened to be alive. And instead of aiming for pins, he was going to be rolling the "ball" into a dark and possibly dangerous vent.

"Be careful."

He whispered to Mighty.

"Same to you!"

Mighty said, sounding somewhat muffled in his curled up formation. Espio struggled to lift him up and plopped him into the opening of the vent. Then he shot his foot up and kicked Mighty rolling down the vents. What neither of them had really thought of when this plan had come into action, was the sounds an curled up armadillo would make banging off of metal walls and rolling around at a reasonably fast pace.

CLANK! BANG! CA-CHUNK! CLANG!

Espio was pretty sure that could be heard throughout the entirety of Eggman's base. He covered his face with one of his hands and sighed at the utter stupidity of their situation. Espio moved away from the vent and started once again walking down the hallway. Now the only thing he could do was hope and pray that Mighty would figure out what to do. In fact, he needed hope and prayer for what HE was going to do.

There were many more robots on the ground as he continued on. The question of what had happened to this base grew ever prominent in his mind. Where was Eggman? Why was no one running around in a panic? Why was it so darn quiet?

He stopped next to the first set of doors he had seen in this hallway. He tried to pry it open with his gloved hands, but to no avail. The thing seemed to be glued shut. He pulled out a dagger and slowly wedged it in the crack between the door and used it as leverage to slowly open the door. Surprisingly, that actually worked, and he was able to get the door far enough open for him to slip between.

He found himself in another giant room, completely surrounded by air-crafts of all kinds, lines and lines of non-working Eggman robots, and an entire wall lined with dangerous weapons that would have been attached to the robots had they been working. It was quiet. There was nothing there. He turned to leave, but something moved in his peripheral vision. Automatically, without even thinking, he ducked down and hid behind the nearest robot.

Good thing too, because his quick reaction allowed him to miss the laser shot that had flown over his head and had blasted a hole in the distant wall.


	12. Tick Tock

Ray kept himself low to the ground, wishing upon every star in the universe that no one would see him. The blue Chameleon, Valdez, was still fiddling with the bomb battery, and was paying absolutely no attention to the fact that a small squirrel had just crawled out of a vent. Now that he was actually attempting this mission; he was starting to wonder what on earth he had been thinking. There was no possible way he could take down a highly skilled ninja by himself! He paused in his movements and tried to stay as still as possible while he thought out some sort of plan.

He couldn't just tackle Valdez down, that would end in a spectacular failure and he would probably be dead by the time that battle was over. In fact, he didn't even know how to disable a bomb! Even if he somehow got Valdez out of the way, he would be staring at a battery turned bomb that was way too complicated for a non technological Mobian like Ray. His hands started shaking as he realized how hopeless his situation was. Only a miracle could save him now. And it wasn't like one was just going to fall right out of the sky, right?

It was now that he desperately wished he had stayed with Mighty. Sure the Armadillo had slowly been turning all of his attention to his sister, and spending less and less time with Ray, but at least they had been together. If Ray had just talked to Mighty; told him how he felt, he wouldn't be here right now. But, if had stayed, no one else would have known this was going on. No one else would have been here to stop it. The only problem was that he had no way to stop it. It was too late to turn around and get help. He had to do something, anything!

Taking a deep breath, He slowly stood up behind Valdez. The pink chameleon, Liza, was still on the ground, her eyes closed. Ray figured she probably was unconscious. Valdez still was looking at the battery, not at all prepared for what was about to happen. Ray leaped forward, before he changed his mind, and tackled Valdez to the ground. The chameleon had not been expecting anyone and was caught off guard, falling down to the ground with ease. He was even more surprised and confused when he saw a small squirrel attempting to pin him down.

Ray punched Valdez in the face, hoping to possible knock the chameleon out. Unfortunately, Ray really wasn't the strong type, so the only thing he succeeded in was giving Valdez a split lip. Valdez finally got over his initial surprise and threw Ray accross the room, causing the squirrel to slam his shoulder into the ground awfully hard. He slowly got up, trying to ignore the pain is his possibly dislocated shoulder.

"Who the heck are you?"

Valdez asked, staring quizzically at the squirrel. Ray felt something inside of him sink. None ever knew who he was. If Mighty were here instead of him, Valdez would probably easily connect him to the Chaotix. Ray was usually forgotten, unless he was standing right next to Mighty.

"I-I-I'm Ray the Flying Squirrel, m-m-member of the Chaotix. I'm g-g-going to stop your b-b-bomb and I'm going to s-s-s-stop you."

They were brave words, but Ray didn't feel brave in the slightest. He wasn't strong enough, fast enough, smart enough to do much of anything. He was just Ray. Valdez didn't think so either.

"Chaotix member huh?"

He replied, smirking.

"I remember them. Though I don't remember a pathetic squirrel with them."

Ray put his chin up and stared the Chameleon down.

"I'm n-n-n-not pathetic!"

He said, angry that someone would ever call him that. He lunged for Valdez again, making it look like he was going to try to tackle him again. Valdez thought the same and automatically moved to the left to dodge the squirrel. Ray smiled. His plan seemed to be working. For the first time since his solo adventure started, Ray used his gliding ability. He could easily twist and turn in the air and it gave him a great advantage.

He flew past Valdez, flipped back around and kicked the chameleon in the back out of the head. Valdez collapsed to the ground face down and didn't move. Ray dropped to the ground and stared at him. He wasn't sure how hard he had hit Valdez, but he didn't think it was hard enough to knock him out.

Nevertheless, Valdez was still on the ground, not moving. Ray carefully approached the Chameleon, not sure what to expect. Valdez flipped around and punched Ray, knocking the poor squirrel back. He felt sharp pains in his face, and something hot and wet was streaming out of his nose.

He lay on the floor in a daze, his head reeling from the blow. Valdez stood up, looking perfectly fine and looked over the squirrel.

"As I said. Pathetic."

The blue Chameleon pulled out a sharp looking dagger and held it over Ray.

"Any last words?"

Ray felt something inside of him cry out. This was not how he wanted to die. He never got to see Mighty again. He was going to die and he would have accomplished nothing. Nothing at all. he watched as the dagger came toward him. Everything was in slow motion.

Suddenly, the ground rumbled as if an earthquake was going on. A loud crashing noise could be heard as metal screeched and echoed throughout the base. Valdez fell backwards, the dagger landing extremely close to Ray's head. Ray covered his ears with his hands as the sounds continued. Eventually, they subsided into silence.

"No, no, no, no!"

Ray slowly sat up, and wiped the blood off of his still streaming nose. Valdez looked livid, his eyes looking half crazed.

"It can't be!"

The Chameleon ran toward the door to the room, and threw aside all the defences he had used to keep it shut. He pulled the doors open and ran out into the hallway, his footsteps echoing as he ran. Ray looked around, not sure why Valdez had reacted like that. He slowly stood up and looked around. The room was still intact, even with the large earthquake. The battery still sat in the same place, and Ray knew that it must still be slowing ticking down towards death.

He didn't know when or if Valdez was coming back so he would need to do something about that battery, and fast. From a distance, he could already tell that there was no way he was going to be able to disarm it himself. He had no idea what he was looking at, and no idea where to start. That left one option available.

The pink chameleon, Liza, was still lying on the floor, her eyes closed. Ray walked toward her with a little less caution than he had when he had gone near Valdez. She was obviously seriously injured, making her ability to fight questionable.

"H-H-Hello?"

He knelt down next to her, trying to listen for the sound of breathing. It was faint and barely noticeable, but she was still breathing. He nudged her gently in the arm. Her eyes fluttered open slowly, and she looked up at the squirrel.

"I k-k-k-know you're really badly hurt, b-b-b-but I need your h-help. D-D-Do you have any idea on how to disable a b-b-b-bomb?"

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><p>Valdez was freaking out. That giant earthquake…. There were numerous possibilities to what had caused it, but something told him it wasn't just a coincidental earthquake. Somebody was here. He ran down hallways; with a somewhat vague idea of where he was going.<p>

Even though he was running, he was almost completely silent as he went through the various hallways. Suddenly, he stopped. He could hear the echo of voices somewhere in the distance, although he could not quite place it.

"It's just big enough for him to fit."

So there was someone else in the base. The earthquake must have been the result of some sort of crash. But who else could be here? Bitter waves of hatred rolled through him when he realized that only one person would have made it here. But that was impossible, he told himself.

The last he'd seen of Espio was the chameleon lying on the ground slowly bleeding to death. The chances the Espio was able to stand up and come all the way to Robotropolis after he had gotten that kind of injury was slim and quite unbelievable.

Or maybe not. Espio was the type of person who would downplay how bad he was actually hurt until he had finished what whatever he was working on. Once, when Espio had been around seven years of age, they had gone for a hike so Espio could get an idea of the Shinobi territory. While they were walking around, Espio had slipped and smashed his leg on a reasonably good sized rock. He just got back up and kept walking like nothing had happened and Valdez had thought nothing of it until they had gotten back to the Clan. It was then that he realized that Espio's leg had swollen up pretty badly and that he wasn't putting much weight on it. Apparently, he had broken the damn thing and hadn't said a word to Valdez even though the pain must have been something terrible.

So Espio could very easily be on the verge of death and yet still come here to try and stop Valdez. It almost made him smile at how focused Espio could be.

CLANK! BANG! CA-CHUNK! CLANG!

The loud noises shocked Valdez back into reality and he looked around, trying to figure out where it was coming from. It sounded close; really close, but that could just be the echo effect of the base itself. He moved forward again, not sure of what was making the noise.

Something to his right caught his attention as he walked by. It was an open set of doors, and within those doors were rows and rows of Eggman's aircrafts and robots. Curious, he stepped into the room and found a very interesting sight. There were tons and tons of weapons just lining the walls, waiting to be attached to robots or ships. He turned and slowly pushed the metal doors shut behind him, just in case someone tried to come in after him. He turned back toward the weapons, a small smile forming on his face. He only needed one of these; just one. The he could go back to his battery and keep it safe. Heck, he could even shoot the thing and blow it up early! That way, Robotropolis would be gone, gone, gone. And Espio wouldn't be able to do anything.

Reaching toward the wall, he grabbed a silver gun looking thing that wasn't too big for him to carry. He shot off a test shot and watched as a green laser shot accross the room; promptly obliterating a giant robot. It was perfect. Suddenly, in the dead quiet of the large room, he heard sounds of someone pushing a heavy metal object. He turned toward the door and watched as someone was slowly opening the door.

Valdez moved back and hid behind one of the larger robots and waited. Eventually the sound of the moving door stopped and he could hear quiet footsteps as someone walked in. He glanced around the robot to look at the person who had just walked in.

He was greeted by the sight of a very familiar purple chameleon. The very sight of Espio caused a thousand separate emotions to flow through Valdez. He quickly moved from behind the robot and attempted to blast the chameleon out of existence. He watched in horror as Espio ducked down and avoided getting shot. He aimed his weapon and prepared to shoot again. No more games. No more trying to get Epsio to agree with him. No more failed attempts. He was going to kill Espio, and he was going to blow up Robotropolis; no matter what.

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><p><strong>Thank you guys for all your appreciation. Without your support, this FanFiction would never have gotten as far as it did. I wanted to thank all the guest reviewers who I can't thank personally, but really appreciate. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I can't wait until I can get Chapter 13 up for you all. :-D<strong>


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